Sunday, May 8, 2022

Romans 8:1-11: The Mind Governed By the Spirit is Life and Peace

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 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.

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. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

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. 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. 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. - Romans 8:1-11

There are three problems: we are condemned because we fail to meet the righteous requirements of the law, we are in debt because we cannot pay for the sin that resulted from that and we are decaying and dying because of the death that result from that sin.

But Jesus could meet the requirements of the law. Jesus said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." (Matt. 5;17) 

But Jesus could pay the debt of sin for us as the sin offering. If we are "in Christ" then his payment for sin is also our payment for sin.  

But Jesus could give life and escape death. If we are "in Christ" then we share his Spirit dwells in us and the Spirit will outlast the decay and death of our body.  "...if the Spirit ... is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies."  

Paul says, "The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace." I feel that I am of two minds and each moment I get to choose under whose governing I am living. Jesus made a new mind possible and a new life possible. Why do I live in fear that I am still condemned and in chaos.

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