May the mumbling commence!
Yes! We are free! Free from condemnation! We are free to work. And what will we do? Shall we work righteousness as the Spirit leads us? Or shall we become enmeshed in that old work of evil that abides so readily in the lusts and passions of our bodies? Read from the beginning of Romans chapter eight (NASB):
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. (Verses 1-11)
The choices are clear. We can choose evil, or we can choose good. The pattern and juxtaposition is there. I highlighted it in dark red and green.
Are we going to live according to the flesh? Or are we going to live according to the Spirit? It is a matter of reaping death or reaping life and peace. It seems an easy choice.
I only wish the choices were as clear in my daily living. Daily we are asked to trust the leading of the Spirit. Daily I need to approach the Word of God. Daily I need my family at church. I need to be a part of the body – functioning and listening with all the other parts.
May it be so! May I be dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ, my Lord!
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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