September 19, 2021 REAL LIFE
Romans 8:11-14 “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus form the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Sprit who indwells you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh-for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.”
The single most important issue for each of us is that of what our mind set on. Verse 6 of Romans 8 tells us “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.” Who does not want ‘life and peace?’ Dying to self and to the flesh is absolutely necessary if we are to experience life and peace. The absolute ‘bottom line,’ the core issue, is that of who are what is directing my life, or what is motivating me to do what I do. There are only two options; self, (also referred to as the flesh) or the Spirit of God. Naturally, by human nature, we focus on self-preservation and self-fulfillment, so the instruction to die to self does not seem logical or the right thing to do. As believers, we have been made new creatures and have been given new hearts, new minds, new natures, and a new Spirit; however, our ‘old’ self has not been annihilated; it is possible to let the old self be the chief influencer of our lives. The battle lines are clear; we war against the flesh. We win this war by ‘considering’ ourselves dead to sin. See Romans 6:1-13. To consider here means ‘to count it as so’. It may sound contradictory, but it is true that our old self was crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6), and it is true that we are called to die to self. Christ broke the power of sin; now we are able to say no to sin and yes to God. Christ has won the victory and sin has been defeated, but we must make the choice to claim His victory in our lives. We have been freed to walk according to the Spirit-and not according to the flesh-who we use to be. The verse above tells us that if we are living according to the flesh, we must die-not a physical death, but dying to self. A lot more could be said here, but the point is that Jesus dwells in us and He gladly gives life to our mortal bodies through His Spirit. The greatest deed we can do, and the most fulfilling thing we can do is to die to ourselves and live as unto God. Living as unto God means that I desire to do the things that please Him; that I read His word so that I may gain more knowledge of Him; that I say no to the desires of my flesh-the selfish part of me; and it means that I live and respond out of the new creature that God has made me. God did not make us robots; He has given us the power of choice. If we choose to lay aside our ways, and walk according to the Spirit which He has given us, only then will we experience real life.
Romans 6:2b, 4, 6-7, 11 “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.” “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Galatians 5:16-17 “But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.”
Blessings, Buddy
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