Romans 12
KingCommentsRomans 12:1
Wrestling Under the Law
In these verses you’ll meet someone who’s struggling with the law. He’s converted and has life from God. This is clear from Romans 7:22 where it says he delights in the law of God. An unbeliever would never say this. The man of Romans 7 struggles with sin living in him. While struggling, he’s sinking deeper and deeper. He’s like someone who is stuck in the marshes. When you become stuck in marshes, you begin to slowly sink. Every attempt to get yourself out only causes you to sink faster. Marsh-walker, as we’ll call this man, tries to free himself from the power of sin by obeying the law of God, but time and time again, he’s defeated. He always does what he hates to do when he’s trying his best to do well.
Can you relate to this struggle? I think struggling like this is a necessary experience when you earnestly desire to live with God and with the Lord Jesus. This doesn’t mean you’ll be struggling for the rest of your life. There’s a way out, but someone who doesn’t know about this kind of struggle is often just a superficial Christian. This struggle teaches you the tough reality that in you, that is in your flesh, there is nothing good.
Romans 7:14. How does this struggle start? It starts when the law is used incorrectly. What then can you to do with the law? In a general sense you know the law is spiritual – that is, the law makes you God-centered and tells you how to serve Him. Why then don’t you succeed? Because you are “of flesh [or: fleshly], sold into bondage to sin”. This is where the troubles come from.
Romans 7:15-16. You can’t do it; you’d like to serve God, but you don’t. Rather, you do what you hate to do. This experience tells you something. If you do what you don’t want to do, you recognize the law is good, for the law doesn’t want you to do wrong either. So you and the law agree.
Romans 7:17-20. Then there must be something else that does the wrong. Well, there is something else and it is sin living in you. But you can’t blame sin for the wrong you are doing because it’s your fault when you let sin use you. This is because you don’t have the power in yourself to resist sin. You want to do what’s good, but in your flesh, the old sinful nature, there is nothing good. For this reason, you get to the point where you do wrong, but then it’s not you who’s doing it, but sin living in you.
Romans 7:21-22. What are you experiencing? If you desire to do well (and that’s a good desire!), evil is present in you. In your heart you feel joy about God’s law and you desire to live according to it. This desire results from the new life you have, but you still have the old nature which wants to assert itself.
Romans 7:23. This old nature, the law of sin, makes you its prisoner and is fighting to keep you under control. This fight is taking place in the members of your body. What is at stake is who is exercising authority over your members. Since your conversion, your hands, eyes, feet, mind and body are in God’s service (Romans 6:13).
Romans 7:24. But while struggling, it feels as if sin still has them under control. This makes you feel like the most miserable person on earth. Your body is a body in which death is working and from which you’d like to be delivered. How can this go on? Notice the word “who” in Romans 7:24. It’s as if Marsh-walker starts to look around for someone else to save and deliver him.
Romans 7:25. This is the end of all the struggling. His eyes look to God. He sees that God has already prepared the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. One who sees this immediately starts to thank God. (Now you can read again how this salvation was brought about in the beginning of Romans 7.)
The last part of this verse gives a conclusion of the characteristics of the two natures within a believer. You’ll keep these two natures as long as you’re living on earth, but this shouldn’t be distressing since the old nature no longer has authority over you. In the next chapter you’ll see many more things that God has given you to lead a victorious life.
Now read Romans 7:14-25 again.
Reflection: Do you sometimes have the feeling described in these verses? What should you do?
Romans 12:2
Wrestling Under the Law
In these verses you’ll meet someone who’s struggling with the law. He’s converted and has life from God. This is clear from Romans 7:22 where it says he delights in the law of God. An unbeliever would never say this. The man of Romans 7 struggles with sin living in him. While struggling, he’s sinking deeper and deeper. He’s like someone who is stuck in the marshes. When you become stuck in marshes, you begin to slowly sink. Every attempt to get yourself out only causes you to sink faster. Marsh-walker, as we’ll call this man, tries to free himself from the power of sin by obeying the law of God, but time and time again, he’s defeated. He always does what he hates to do when he’s trying his best to do well.
Can you relate to this struggle? I think struggling like this is a necessary experience when you earnestly desire to live with God and with the Lord Jesus. This doesn’t mean you’ll be struggling for the rest of your life. There’s a way out, but someone who doesn’t know about this kind of struggle is often just a superficial Christian. This struggle teaches you the tough reality that in you, that is in your flesh, there is nothing good.
Romans 7:14. How does this struggle start? It starts when the law is used incorrectly. What then can you to do with the law? In a general sense you know the law is spiritual – that is, the law makes you God-centered and tells you how to serve Him. Why then don’t you succeed? Because you are “of flesh [or: fleshly], sold into bondage to sin”. This is where the troubles come from.
Romans 7:15-16. You can’t do it; you’d like to serve God, but you don’t. Rather, you do what you hate to do. This experience tells you something. If you do what you don’t want to do, you recognize the law is good, for the law doesn’t want you to do wrong either. So you and the law agree.
Romans 7:17-20. Then there must be something else that does the wrong. Well, there is something else and it is sin living in you. But you can’t blame sin for the wrong you are doing because it’s your fault when you let sin use you. This is because you don’t have the power in yourself to resist sin. You want to do what’s good, but in your flesh, the old sinful nature, there is nothing good. For this reason, you get to the point where you do wrong, but then it’s not you who’s doing it, but sin living in you.
Romans 7:21-22. What are you experiencing? If you desire to do well (and that’s a good desire!), evil is present in you. In your heart you feel joy about God’s law and you desire to live according to it. This desire results from the new life you have, but you still have the old nature which wants to assert itself.
Romans 7:23. This old nature, the law of sin, makes you its prisoner and is fighting to keep you under control. This fight is taking place in the members of your body. What is at stake is who is exercising authority over your members. Since your conversion, your hands, eyes, feet, mind and body are in God’s service (Romans 6:13).
Romans 7:24. But while struggling, it feels as if sin still has them under control. This makes you feel like the most miserable person on earth. Your body is a body in which death is working and from which you’d like to be delivered. How can this go on? Notice the word “who” in Romans 7:24. It’s as if Marsh-walker starts to look around for someone else to save and deliver him.
Romans 7:25. This is the end of all the struggling. His eyes look to God. He sees that God has already prepared the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. One who sees this immediately starts to thank God. (Now you can read again how this salvation was brought about in the beginning of Romans 7.)
The last part of this verse gives a conclusion of the characteristics of the two natures within a believer. You’ll keep these two natures as long as you’re living on earth, but this shouldn’t be distressing since the old nature no longer has authority over you. In the next chapter you’ll see many more things that God has given you to lead a victorious life.
Now read Romans 7:14-25 again.
Reflection: Do you sometimes have the feeling described in these verses? What should you do?
Romans 12:3
Wrestling Under the Law
In these verses you’ll meet someone who’s struggling with the law. He’s converted and has life from God. This is clear from Romans 7:22 where it says he delights in the law of God. An unbeliever would never say this. The man of Romans 7 struggles with sin living in him. While struggling, he’s sinking deeper and deeper. He’s like someone who is stuck in the marshes. When you become stuck in marshes, you begin to slowly sink. Every attempt to get yourself out only causes you to sink faster. Marsh-walker, as we’ll call this man, tries to free himself from the power of sin by obeying the law of God, but time and time again, he’s defeated. He always does what he hates to do when he’s trying his best to do well.
Can you relate to this struggle? I think struggling like this is a necessary experience when you earnestly desire to live with God and with the Lord Jesus. This doesn’t mean you’ll be struggling for the rest of your life. There’s a way out, but someone who doesn’t know about this kind of struggle is often just a superficial Christian. This struggle teaches you the tough reality that in you, that is in your flesh, there is nothing good.
Romans 7:14. How does this struggle start? It starts when the law is used incorrectly. What then can you to do with the law? In a general sense you know the law is spiritual – that is, the law makes you God-centered and tells you how to serve Him. Why then don’t you succeed? Because you are “of flesh [or: fleshly], sold into bondage to sin”. This is where the troubles come from.
Romans 7:15-16. You can’t do it; you’d like to serve God, but you don’t. Rather, you do what you hate to do. This experience tells you something. If you do what you don’t want to do, you recognize the law is good, for the law doesn’t want you to do wrong either. So you and the law agree.
Romans 7:17-20. Then there must be something else that does the wrong. Well, there is something else and it is sin living in you. But you can’t blame sin for the wrong you are doing because it’s your fault when you let sin use you. This is because you don’t have the power in yourself to resist sin. You want to do what’s good, but in your flesh, the old sinful nature, there is nothing good. For this reason, you get to the point where you do wrong, but then it’s not you who’s doing it, but sin living in you.
Romans 7:21-22. What are you experiencing? If you desire to do well (and that’s a good desire!), evil is present in you. In your heart you feel joy about God’s law and you desire to live according to it. This desire results from the new life you have, but you still have the old nature which wants to assert itself.
Romans 7:23. This old nature, the law of sin, makes you its prisoner and is fighting to keep you under control. This fight is taking place in the members of your body. What is at stake is who is exercising authority over your members. Since your conversion, your hands, eyes, feet, mind and body are in God’s service (Romans 6:13).
Romans 7:24. But while struggling, it feels as if sin still has them under control. This makes you feel like the most miserable person on earth. Your body is a body in which death is working and from which you’d like to be delivered. How can this go on? Notice the word “who” in Romans 7:24. It’s as if Marsh-walker starts to look around for someone else to save and deliver him.
Romans 7:25. This is the end of all the struggling. His eyes look to God. He sees that God has already prepared the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. One who sees this immediately starts to thank God. (Now you can read again how this salvation was brought about in the beginning of Romans 7.)
The last part of this verse gives a conclusion of the characteristics of the two natures within a believer. You’ll keep these two natures as long as you’re living on earth, but this shouldn’t be distressing since the old nature no longer has authority over you. In the next chapter you’ll see many more things that God has given you to lead a victorious life.
Now read Romans 7:14-25 again.
Reflection: Do you sometimes have the feeling described in these verses? What should you do?
Romans 12:5
Walking According to the Spirit
Romans 8:1. After experiencing the struggle to leave the marshes in Romans 7, you now have firm ground under your feet. This firmness is in Christ. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Isn’t this a relief? This is how God sees you and this is how you should see yourself. Every fear of judgment is gone because Christ bore the judgment and rose from the dead.
Romans 8:2. If you have come far enough in your faith-life to be Christ-centered instead of self-centered, then the Holy Spirit can start working in you. The Holy Spirit is called the “Spirit of life” here. The Holy Spirit doesn’t work death, but life. This is how He worked in the Lord Jesus. Everywhere the Lord Jesus went, He brought life. When the Lord Jesus died, He rose from the dead by the power of the Spirit of life. In the same way, the Spirit of life has delivered you from the power of sin and death.
Romans 8:3. Remember how the law promised life to anyone who kept it, but no one could keep it. Not because the law wasn’t good, but because in the flesh there wasn’t the power to keep it. I once read the following comparison that may help make this clearer. Imagine a skilled woodcarver who can create the most beautiful figures from a piece of wood. He has the best tools money can buy. But if you give this man a piece of rotten wood, he can’t do anything with it. You can’t blame him, for he’s certainly skilled enough. Nor can you blame his tools because you would not find any better. What then is to blame? The piece of wood!
This is how it is with the law and us. God is not to blame. He is perfectly skilled. Nor is the law to blame: it is holy and righteous and good, as we saw in Romans 7. It is therefore our fault if the law is not seen to its full advantage. It is our flesh that makes the law powerless. How marvelous that God didn’t leave us struggling all by ourselves! When it became clear it was impossible for the law to deliver you from sin and death, God set to work. He sent His own Son as Man into this world. At the cross of Calvary, God judged sin in His Son when He made Him sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).
When Romans 8:3 says “in the likeness of sinful flesh”, this applies to the incarnation of the Lord Jesus, that is, His becoming Man. In this respect He became like us, but with the exception of sin (Hebrews 4:15). He didn’t partake of the wicked, sinful flesh that we, being born from sinful parents, have from our birth due to our human nature. Being like us applies to His outward appearance which was that of a man. When the Lord Jesus was hanging on the cross, and even then only during the final three hours, did God condemn sin in the flesh. He has finished with it completely and put it away forever.
Romans 8:4. The new source of power that wants to work in your life from now on is the Holy Spirit. If you let yourself be led by Him you will fulfill the righteous demand of the law. Perhaps you think: “Am I then still subjected to the law?” No, most definitely not. But do you think the Holy Spirit would have you do something against the law? No, of course not. For that reason, if you allow yourself to be led by the Spirit, you will automatically, so to speak, do what the law says. But this is not the aim of walking according to the Spirit. Walking according to the Spirit means a lot more than this. It means you give the Holy Spirit freedom in your life and that He fills your thoughts.
Romans 8:5-6. The way you think makes it clear what is guiding you. On what do you fix your thoughts? What do you long for? You have been converted. You have been given the new life. You have received the Holy Spirit. Despite the battles you’ll have to fight now and then, you’ll have other things on your mind than before your conversion. Then you were thinking fleshly thoughts; you were self-centered. What was the result? Nothing other than death.
Now that you think of spiritual things, your life is God-centered. What are the results? Life and peace! The real and true life is what you received in your inner being and it becomes visible by the way you live. You now have a different outlook on the things around you than before. Only now does life have a real significance. You know God and you know Christ. There is peace in your heart because in relation to God everything is in order. Read Romans 5:1-2 again (Romans 5:1-2). You will experience this peace in deeper and deeper measure as you surrender yourself to God in all the areas of your life and if you remain God-centered.
Romans 8:7. With the flesh it is entirely different. In the flesh there is no life or peace. On the contrary, whatever it thinks of is always at enmity with God. The flesh is completely evil without the possibility of improvement. It can’t subject itself to God’s law, nor does it want to. Keep all the things mentioned here as characteristic of the flesh and of the Spirit firmly in mind. Then you will recognize whether a certain desire is from the flesh or the new life.
Now read Romans 8:1-7 again.
Reflection: What is the difference between walking according to the flesh and walking according to the Spirit?
Romans 12:6
Walking According to the Spirit
Romans 8:1. After experiencing the struggle to leave the marshes in Romans 7, you now have firm ground under your feet. This firmness is in Christ. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Isn’t this a relief? This is how God sees you and this is how you should see yourself. Every fear of judgment is gone because Christ bore the judgment and rose from the dead.
Romans 8:2. If you have come far enough in your faith-life to be Christ-centered instead of self-centered, then the Holy Spirit can start working in you. The Holy Spirit is called the “Spirit of life” here. The Holy Spirit doesn’t work death, but life. This is how He worked in the Lord Jesus. Everywhere the Lord Jesus went, He brought life. When the Lord Jesus died, He rose from the dead by the power of the Spirit of life. In the same way, the Spirit of life has delivered you from the power of sin and death.
Romans 8:3. Remember how the law promised life to anyone who kept it, but no one could keep it. Not because the law wasn’t good, but because in the flesh there wasn’t the power to keep it. I once read the following comparison that may help make this clearer. Imagine a skilled woodcarver who can create the most beautiful figures from a piece of wood. He has the best tools money can buy. But if you give this man a piece of rotten wood, he can’t do anything with it. You can’t blame him, for he’s certainly skilled enough. Nor can you blame his tools because you would not find any better. What then is to blame? The piece of wood!
This is how it is with the law and us. God is not to blame. He is perfectly skilled. Nor is the law to blame: it is holy and righteous and good, as we saw in Romans 7. It is therefore our fault if the law is not seen to its full advantage. It is our flesh that makes the law powerless. How marvelous that God didn’t leave us struggling all by ourselves! When it became clear it was impossible for the law to deliver you from sin and death, God set to work. He sent His own Son as Man into this world. At the cross of Calvary, God judged sin in His Son when He made Him sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).
When Romans 8:3 says “in the likeness of sinful flesh”, this applies to the incarnation of the Lord Jesus, that is, His becoming Man. In this respect He became like us, but with the exception of sin (Hebrews 4:15). He didn’t partake of the wicked, sinful flesh that we, being born from sinful parents, have from our birth due to our human nature. Being like us applies to His outward appearance which was that of a man. When the Lord Jesus was hanging on the cross, and even then only during the final three hours, did God condemn sin in the flesh. He has finished with it completely and put it away forever.
Romans 8:4. The new source of power that wants to work in your life from now on is the Holy Spirit. If you let yourself be led by Him you will fulfill the righteous demand of the law. Perhaps you think: “Am I then still subjected to the law?” No, most definitely not. But do you think the Holy Spirit would have you do something against the law? No, of course not. For that reason, if you allow yourself to be led by the Spirit, you will automatically, so to speak, do what the law says. But this is not the aim of walking according to the Spirit. Walking according to the Spirit means a lot more than this. It means you give the Holy Spirit freedom in your life and that He fills your thoughts.
Romans 8:5-6. The way you think makes it clear what is guiding you. On what do you fix your thoughts? What do you long for? You have been converted. You have been given the new life. You have received the Holy Spirit. Despite the battles you’ll have to fight now and then, you’ll have other things on your mind than before your conversion. Then you were thinking fleshly thoughts; you were self-centered. What was the result? Nothing other than death.
Now that you think of spiritual things, your life is God-centered. What are the results? Life and peace! The real and true life is what you received in your inner being and it becomes visible by the way you live. You now have a different outlook on the things around you than before. Only now does life have a real significance. You know God and you know Christ. There is peace in your heart because in relation to God everything is in order. Read Romans 5:1-2 again (Romans 5:1-2). You will experience this peace in deeper and deeper measure as you surrender yourself to God in all the areas of your life and if you remain God-centered.
Romans 8:7. With the flesh it is entirely different. In the flesh there is no life or peace. On the contrary, whatever it thinks of is always at enmity with God. The flesh is completely evil without the possibility of improvement. It can’t subject itself to God’s law, nor does it want to. Keep all the things mentioned here as characteristic of the flesh and of the Spirit firmly in mind. Then you will recognize whether a certain desire is from the flesh or the new life.
Now read Romans 8:1-7 again.
Reflection: What is the difference between walking according to the flesh and walking according to the Spirit?
Romans 12:7
Walking According to the Spirit
Romans 8:1. After experiencing the struggle to leave the marshes in Romans 7, you now have firm ground under your feet. This firmness is in Christ. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Isn’t this a relief? This is how God sees you and this is how you should see yourself. Every fear of judgment is gone because Christ bore the judgment and rose from the dead.
Romans 8:2. If you have come far enough in your faith-life to be Christ-centered instead of self-centered, then the Holy Spirit can start working in you. The Holy Spirit is called the “Spirit of life” here. The Holy Spirit doesn’t work death, but life. This is how He worked in the Lord Jesus. Everywhere the Lord Jesus went, He brought life. When the Lord Jesus died, He rose from the dead by the power of the Spirit of life. In the same way, the Spirit of life has delivered you from the power of sin and death.
Romans 8:3. Remember how the law promised life to anyone who kept it, but no one could keep it. Not because the law wasn’t good, but because in the flesh there wasn’t the power to keep it. I once read the following comparison that may help make this clearer. Imagine a skilled woodcarver who can create the most beautiful figures from a piece of wood. He has the best tools money can buy. But if you give this man a piece of rotten wood, he can’t do anything with it. You can’t blame him, for he’s certainly skilled enough. Nor can you blame his tools because you would not find any better. What then is to blame? The piece of wood!
This is how it is with the law and us. God is not to blame. He is perfectly skilled. Nor is the law to blame: it is holy and righteous and good, as we saw in Romans 7. It is therefore our fault if the law is not seen to its full advantage. It is our flesh that makes the law powerless. How marvelous that God didn’t leave us struggling all by ourselves! When it became clear it was impossible for the law to deliver you from sin and death, God set to work. He sent His own Son as Man into this world. At the cross of Calvary, God judged sin in His Son when He made Him sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).
When Romans 8:3 says “in the likeness of sinful flesh”, this applies to the incarnation of the Lord Jesus, that is, His becoming Man. In this respect He became like us, but with the exception of sin (Hebrews 4:15). He didn’t partake of the wicked, sinful flesh that we, being born from sinful parents, have from our birth due to our human nature. Being like us applies to His outward appearance which was that of a man. When the Lord Jesus was hanging on the cross, and even then only during the final three hours, did God condemn sin in the flesh. He has finished with it completely and put it away forever.
Romans 8:4. The new source of power that wants to work in your life from now on is the Holy Spirit. If you let yourself be led by Him you will fulfill the righteous demand of the law. Perhaps you think: “Am I then still subjected to the law?” No, most definitely not. But do you think the Holy Spirit would have you do something against the law? No, of course not. For that reason, if you allow yourself to be led by the Spirit, you will automatically, so to speak, do what the law says. But this is not the aim of walking according to the Spirit. Walking according to the Spirit means a lot more than this. It means you give the Holy Spirit freedom in your life and that He fills your thoughts.
Romans 8:5-6. The way you think makes it clear what is guiding you. On what do you fix your thoughts? What do you long for? You have been converted. You have been given the new life. You have received the Holy Spirit. Despite the battles you’ll have to fight now and then, you’ll have other things on your mind than before your conversion. Then you were thinking fleshly thoughts; you were self-centered. What was the result? Nothing other than death.
Now that you think of spiritual things, your life is God-centered. What are the results? Life and peace! The real and true life is what you received in your inner being and it becomes visible by the way you live. You now have a different outlook on the things around you than before. Only now does life have a real significance. You know God and you know Christ. There is peace in your heart because in relation to God everything is in order. Read Romans 5:1-2 again (Romans 5:1-2). You will experience this peace in deeper and deeper measure as you surrender yourself to God in all the areas of your life and if you remain God-centered.
Romans 8:7. With the flesh it is entirely different. In the flesh there is no life or peace. On the contrary, whatever it thinks of is always at enmity with God. The flesh is completely evil without the possibility of improvement. It can’t subject itself to God’s law, nor does it want to. Keep all the things mentioned here as characteristic of the flesh and of the Spirit firmly in mind. Then you will recognize whether a certain desire is from the flesh or the new life.
Now read Romans 8:1-7 again.
Reflection: What is the difference between walking according to the flesh and walking according to the Spirit?
Romans 12:8
Walking According to the Spirit
Romans 8:1. After experiencing the struggle to leave the marshes in Romans 7, you now have firm ground under your feet. This firmness is in Christ. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Isn’t this a relief? This is how God sees you and this is how you should see yourself. Every fear of judgment is gone because Christ bore the judgment and rose from the dead.
Romans 8:2. If you have come far enough in your faith-life to be Christ-centered instead of self-centered, then the Holy Spirit can start working in you. The Holy Spirit is called the “Spirit of life” here. The Holy Spirit doesn’t work death, but life. This is how He worked in the Lord Jesus. Everywhere the Lord Jesus went, He brought life. When the Lord Jesus died, He rose from the dead by the power of the Spirit of life. In the same way, the Spirit of life has delivered you from the power of sin and death.
Romans 8:3. Remember how the law promised life to anyone who kept it, but no one could keep it. Not because the law wasn’t good, but because in the flesh there wasn’t the power to keep it. I once read the following comparison that may help make this clearer. Imagine a skilled woodcarver who can create the most beautiful figures from a piece of wood. He has the best tools money can buy. But if you give this man a piece of rotten wood, he can’t do anything with it. You can’t blame him, for he’s certainly skilled enough. Nor can you blame his tools because you would not find any better. What then is to blame? The piece of wood!
This is how it is with the law and us. God is not to blame. He is perfectly skilled. Nor is the law to blame: it is holy and righteous and good, as we saw in Romans 7. It is therefore our fault if the law is not seen to its full advantage. It is our flesh that makes the law powerless. How marvelous that God didn’t leave us struggling all by ourselves! When it became clear it was impossible for the law to deliver you from sin and death, God set to work. He sent His own Son as Man into this world. At the cross of Calvary, God judged sin in His Son when He made Him sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).
When Romans 8:3 says “in the likeness of sinful flesh”, this applies to the incarnation of the Lord Jesus, that is, His becoming Man. In this respect He became like us, but with the exception of sin (Hebrews 4:15). He didn’t partake of the wicked, sinful flesh that we, being born from sinful parents, have from our birth due to our human nature. Being like us applies to His outward appearance which was that of a man. When the Lord Jesus was hanging on the cross, and even then only during the final three hours, did God condemn sin in the flesh. He has finished with it completely and put it away forever.
Romans 8:4. The new source of power that wants to work in your life from now on is the Holy Spirit. If you let yourself be led by Him you will fulfill the righteous demand of the law. Perhaps you think: “Am I then still subjected to the law?” No, most definitely not. But do you think the Holy Spirit would have you do something against the law? No, of course not. For that reason, if you allow yourself to be led by the Spirit, you will automatically, so to speak, do what the law says. But this is not the aim of walking according to the Spirit. Walking according to the Spirit means a lot more than this. It means you give the Holy Spirit freedom in your life and that He fills your thoughts.
Romans 8:5-6. The way you think makes it clear what is guiding you. On what do you fix your thoughts? What do you long for? You have been converted. You have been given the new life. You have received the Holy Spirit. Despite the battles you’ll have to fight now and then, you’ll have other things on your mind than before your conversion. Then you were thinking fleshly thoughts; you were self-centered. What was the result? Nothing other than death.
Now that you think of spiritual things, your life is God-centered. What are the results? Life and peace! The real and true life is what you received in your inner being and it becomes visible by the way you live. You now have a different outlook on the things around you than before. Only now does life have a real significance. You know God and you know Christ. There is peace in your heart because in relation to God everything is in order. Read Romans 5:1-2 again (Romans 5:1-2). You will experience this peace in deeper and deeper measure as you surrender yourself to God in all the areas of your life and if you remain God-centered.
Romans 8:7. With the flesh it is entirely different. In the flesh there is no life or peace. On the contrary, whatever it thinks of is always at enmity with God. The flesh is completely evil without the possibility of improvement. It can’t subject itself to God’s law, nor does it want to. Keep all the things mentioned here as characteristic of the flesh and of the Spirit firmly in mind. Then you will recognize whether a certain desire is from the flesh or the new life.
Now read Romans 8:1-7 again.
Reflection: What is the difference between walking according to the flesh and walking according to the Spirit?
Romans 12:9
Walking According to the Spirit
Romans 8:1. After experiencing the struggle to leave the marshes in Romans 7, you now have firm ground under your feet. This firmness is in Christ. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Isn’t this a relief? This is how God sees you and this is how you should see yourself. Every fear of judgment is gone because Christ bore the judgment and rose from the dead.
Romans 8:2. If you have come far enough in your faith-life to be Christ-centered instead of self-centered, then the Holy Spirit can start working in you. The Holy Spirit is called the “Spirit of life” here. The Holy Spirit doesn’t work death, but life. This is how He worked in the Lord Jesus. Everywhere the Lord Jesus went, He brought life. When the Lord Jesus died, He rose from the dead by the power of the Spirit of life. In the same way, the Spirit of life has delivered you from the power of sin and death.
Romans 8:3. Remember how the law promised life to anyone who kept it, but no one could keep it. Not because the law wasn’t good, but because in the flesh there wasn’t the power to keep it. I once read the following comparison that may help make this clearer. Imagine a skilled woodcarver who can create the most beautiful figures from a piece of wood. He has the best tools money can buy. But if you give this man a piece of rotten wood, he can’t do anything with it. You can’t blame him, for he’s certainly skilled enough. Nor can you blame his tools because you would not find any better. What then is to blame? The piece of wood!
This is how it is with the law and us. God is not to blame. He is perfectly skilled. Nor is the law to blame: it is holy and righteous and good, as we saw in Romans 7. It is therefore our fault if the law is not seen to its full advantage. It is our flesh that makes the law powerless. How marvelous that God didn’t leave us struggling all by ourselves! When it became clear it was impossible for the law to deliver you from sin and death, God set to work. He sent His own Son as Man into this world. At the cross of Calvary, God judged sin in His Son when He made Him sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).
When Romans 8:3 says “in the likeness of sinful flesh”, this applies to the incarnation of the Lord Jesus, that is, His becoming Man. In this respect He became like us, but with the exception of sin (Hebrews 4:15). He didn’t partake of the wicked, sinful flesh that we, being born from sinful parents, have from our birth due to our human nature. Being like us applies to His outward appearance which was that of a man. When the Lord Jesus was hanging on the cross, and even then only during the final three hours, did God condemn sin in the flesh. He has finished with it completely and put it away forever.
Romans 8:4. The new source of power that wants to work in your life from now on is the Holy Spirit. If you let yourself be led by Him you will fulfill the righteous demand of the law. Perhaps you think: “Am I then still subjected to the law?” No, most definitely not. But do you think the Holy Spirit would have you do something against the law? No, of course not. For that reason, if you allow yourself to be led by the Spirit, you will automatically, so to speak, do what the law says. But this is not the aim of walking according to the Spirit. Walking according to the Spirit means a lot more than this. It means you give the Holy Spirit freedom in your life and that He fills your thoughts.
Romans 8:5-6. The way you think makes it clear what is guiding you. On what do you fix your thoughts? What do you long for? You have been converted. You have been given the new life. You have received the Holy Spirit. Despite the battles you’ll have to fight now and then, you’ll have other things on your mind than before your conversion. Then you were thinking fleshly thoughts; you were self-centered. What was the result? Nothing other than death.
Now that you think of spiritual things, your life is God-centered. What are the results? Life and peace! The real and true life is what you received in your inner being and it becomes visible by the way you live. You now have a different outlook on the things around you than before. Only now does life have a real significance. You know God and you know Christ. There is peace in your heart because in relation to God everything is in order. Read Romans 5:1-2 again (Romans 5:1-2). You will experience this peace in deeper and deeper measure as you surrender yourself to God in all the areas of your life and if you remain God-centered.
Romans 8:7. With the flesh it is entirely different. In the flesh there is no life or peace. On the contrary, whatever it thinks of is always at enmity with God. The flesh is completely evil without the possibility of improvement. It can’t subject itself to God’s law, nor does it want to. Keep all the things mentioned here as characteristic of the flesh and of the Spirit firmly in mind. Then you will recognize whether a certain desire is from the flesh or the new life.
Now read Romans 8:1-7 again.
Reflection: What is the difference between walking according to the flesh and walking according to the Spirit?
Romans 12:10
Walking According to the Spirit
Romans 8:1. After experiencing the struggle to leave the marshes in Romans 7, you now have firm ground under your feet. This firmness is in Christ. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Isn’t this a relief? This is how God sees you and this is how you should see yourself. Every fear of judgment is gone because Christ bore the judgment and rose from the dead.
Romans 8:2. If you have come far enough in your faith-life to be Christ-centered instead of self-centered, then the Holy Spirit can start working in you. The Holy Spirit is called the “Spirit of life” here. The Holy Spirit doesn’t work death, but life. This is how He worked in the Lord Jesus. Everywhere the Lord Jesus went, He brought life. When the Lord Jesus died, He rose from the dead by the power of the Spirit of life. In the same way, the Spirit of life has delivered you from the power of sin and death.
Romans 8:3. Remember how the law promised life to anyone who kept it, but no one could keep it. Not because the law wasn’t good, but because in the flesh there wasn’t the power to keep it. I once read the following comparison that may help make this clearer. Imagine a skilled woodcarver who can create the most beautiful figures from a piece of wood. He has the best tools money can buy. But if you give this man a piece of rotten wood, he can’t do anything with it. You can’t blame him, for he’s certainly skilled enough. Nor can you blame his tools because you would not find any better. What then is to blame? The piece of wood!
This is how it is with the law and us. God is not to blame. He is perfectly skilled. Nor is the law to blame: it is holy and righteous and good, as we saw in Romans 7. It is therefore our fault if the law is not seen to its full advantage. It is our flesh that makes the law powerless. How marvelous that God didn’t leave us struggling all by ourselves! When it became clear it was impossible for the law to deliver you from sin and death, God set to work. He sent His own Son as Man into this world. At the cross of Calvary, God judged sin in His Son when He made Him sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).
When Romans 8:3 says “in the likeness of sinful flesh”, this applies to the incarnation of the Lord Jesus, that is, His becoming Man. In this respect He became like us, but with the exception of sin (Hebrews 4:15). He didn’t partake of the wicked, sinful flesh that we, being born from sinful parents, have from our birth due to our human nature. Being like us applies to His outward appearance which was that of a man. When the Lord Jesus was hanging on the cross, and even then only during the final three hours, did God condemn sin in the flesh. He has finished with it completely and put it away forever.
Romans 8:4. The new source of power that wants to work in your life from now on is the Holy Spirit. If you let yourself be led by Him you will fulfill the righteous demand of the law. Perhaps you think: “Am I then still subjected to the law?” No, most definitely not. But do you think the Holy Spirit would have you do something against the law? No, of course not. For that reason, if you allow yourself to be led by the Spirit, you will automatically, so to speak, do what the law says. But this is not the aim of walking according to the Spirit. Walking according to the Spirit means a lot more than this. It means you give the Holy Spirit freedom in your life and that He fills your thoughts.
Romans 8:5-6. The way you think makes it clear what is guiding you. On what do you fix your thoughts? What do you long for? You have been converted. You have been given the new life. You have received the Holy Spirit. Despite the battles you’ll have to fight now and then, you’ll have other things on your mind than before your conversion. Then you were thinking fleshly thoughts; you were self-centered. What was the result? Nothing other than death.
Now that you think of spiritual things, your life is God-centered. What are the results? Life and peace! The real and true life is what you received in your inner being and it becomes visible by the way you live. You now have a different outlook on the things around you than before. Only now does life have a real significance. You know God and you know Christ. There is peace in your heart because in relation to God everything is in order. Read Romans 5:1-2 again (Romans 5:1-2). You will experience this peace in deeper and deeper measure as you surrender yourself to God in all the areas of your life and if you remain God-centered.
Romans 8:7. With the flesh it is entirely different. In the flesh there is no life or peace. On the contrary, whatever it thinks of is always at enmity with God. The flesh is completely evil without the possibility of improvement. It can’t subject itself to God’s law, nor does it want to. Keep all the things mentioned here as characteristic of the flesh and of the Spirit firmly in mind. Then you will recognize whether a certain desire is from the flesh or the new life.
Now read Romans 8:1-7 again.
Reflection: What is the difference between walking according to the flesh and walking according to the Spirit?
Romans 12:11
Walking According to the Spirit
Romans 8:1. After experiencing the struggle to leave the marshes in Romans 7, you now have firm ground under your feet. This firmness is in Christ. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Isn’t this a relief? This is how God sees you and this is how you should see yourself. Every fear of judgment is gone because Christ bore the judgment and rose from the dead.
Romans 8:2. If you have come far enough in your faith-life to be Christ-centered instead of self-centered, then the Holy Spirit can start working in you. The Holy Spirit is called the “Spirit of life” here. The Holy Spirit doesn’t work death, but life. This is how He worked in the Lord Jesus. Everywhere the Lord Jesus went, He brought life. When the Lord Jesus died, He rose from the dead by the power of the Spirit of life. In the same way, the Spirit of life has delivered you from the power of sin and death.
Romans 8:3. Remember how the law promised life to anyone who kept it, but no one could keep it. Not because the law wasn’t good, but because in the flesh there wasn’t the power to keep it. I once read the following comparison that may help make this clearer. Imagine a skilled woodcarver who can create the most beautiful figures from a piece of wood. He has the best tools money can buy. But if you give this man a piece of rotten wood, he can’t do anything with it. You can’t blame him, for he’s certainly skilled enough. Nor can you blame his tools because you would not find any better. What then is to blame? The piece of wood!
This is how it is with the law and us. God is not to blame. He is perfectly skilled. Nor is the law to blame: it is holy and righteous and good, as we saw in Romans 7. It is therefore our fault if the law is not seen to its full advantage. It is our flesh that makes the law powerless. How marvelous that God didn’t leave us struggling all by ourselves! When it became clear it was impossible for the law to deliver you from sin and death, God set to work. He sent His own Son as Man into this world. At the cross of Calvary, God judged sin in His Son when He made Him sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).
When Romans 8:3 says “in the likeness of sinful flesh”, this applies to the incarnation of the Lord Jesus, that is, His becoming Man. In this respect He became like us, but with the exception of sin (Hebrews 4:15). He didn’t partake of the wicked, sinful flesh that we, being born from sinful parents, have from our birth due to our human nature. Being like us applies to His outward appearance which was that of a man. When the Lord Jesus was hanging on the cross, and even then only during the final three hours, did God condemn sin in the flesh. He has finished with it completely and put it away forever.
Romans 8:4. The new source of power that wants to work in your life from now on is the Holy Spirit. If you let yourself be led by Him you will fulfill the righteous demand of the law. Perhaps you think: “Am I then still subjected to the law?” No, most definitely not. But do you think the Holy Spirit would have you do something against the law? No, of course not. For that reason, if you allow yourself to be led by the Spirit, you will automatically, so to speak, do what the law says. But this is not the aim of walking according to the Spirit. Walking according to the Spirit means a lot more than this. It means you give the Holy Spirit freedom in your life and that He fills your thoughts.
Romans 8:5-6. The way you think makes it clear what is guiding you. On what do you fix your thoughts? What do you long for? You have been converted. You have been given the new life. You have received the Holy Spirit. Despite the battles you’ll have to fight now and then, you’ll have other things on your mind than before your conversion. Then you were thinking fleshly thoughts; you were self-centered. What was the result? Nothing other than death.
Now that you think of spiritual things, your life is God-centered. What are the results? Life and peace! The real and true life is what you received in your inner being and it becomes visible by the way you live. You now have a different outlook on the things around you than before. Only now does life have a real significance. You know God and you know Christ. There is peace in your heart because in relation to God everything is in order. Read Romans 5:1-2 again (Romans 5:1-2). You will experience this peace in deeper and deeper measure as you surrender yourself to God in all the areas of your life and if you remain God-centered.
Romans 8:7. With the flesh it is entirely different. In the flesh there is no life or peace. On the contrary, whatever it thinks of is always at enmity with God. The flesh is completely evil without the possibility of improvement. It can’t subject itself to God’s law, nor does it want to. Keep all the things mentioned here as characteristic of the flesh and of the Spirit firmly in mind. Then you will recognize whether a certain desire is from the flesh or the new life.
Now read Romans 8:1-7 again.
Reflection: What is the difference between walking according to the flesh and walking according to the Spirit?
Romans 12:12
If the Spirit Dwells in You
Romans 8:8. For someone who is in the flesh, it is impossible to please God. Being in the flesh means having yourself, your abilities, your labors, your plans and intentions as a center. Even if someone in the flesh would try to please God by keeping the law, this would be unacceptable to God. The starting point is wrong. God has dealt with the flesh, the nature of man corrupted by sin, once and for all. So how then could He accept anything from it? There is a definitive separation between God and the sinful flesh.
Romans 8:9. He who has received God’s Spirit is no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit. It is the Spirit of God who lives inside you. The Spirit of God doesn’t make you important, but Christ. You are connected with Christ and you belong to Him through the Spirit of God. If someone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn’t belong to Him.
Why do these verses suddenly speak of the Spirit of Christ? I think it is to show you that the Spirit you have received is the same Spirit by which Christ was led during His life on earth. When you read the Gospels, you can see this all the time. For example, take the Lord’s temptation by satan in the wilderness in Luke 4 (Luke 4:1). There you read how He, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan to the wilderness. Also when He was in the wilderness, He in His perfect holiness was led around by the Spirit. As a result, He remained standing in temptation. He remained focused on God.
Romans 8:10. With you, the Spirit wants to do the same. The Spirit of God is dwelling in you because Christ is in you. The Spirit of God can only connect Himself with something of Christ. This implies that the body, as used by sin for evil practices, is dead. Otherwise God’s Spirit couldn’t enter it to dwell there. But now, Christ being in you, it is completely right for the Spirit to dwell in you and to have authority over the life you now lead, just as it was with Christ.
Romans 8:11. Another important thing is connected with the indwelling of God’s Spirit within you. This has to do with the resurrection of your mortal body. Your body is still subject to the consequences of sin. It can become sick and it can die, but look at what God has done with the Lord Jesus. God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. How should that be with you? Your body is still mortal. Is this consistent with the Spirit of God dwelling in you, Who has everything to do with life? The answer is that God will raise your mortal body as He has done with the Lord Jesus because His Spirit is dwelling in you. Other verses, like in Philippians 3, tell us this will take place at the return of the Lord Jesus for His own, commonly called the rapture (Philippians 3:21).
Romans 8:12. All of this puts you under a certain obligation. You have become a debtor to live according to the position God has given you. He has provided you with all it takes to live a godly life, that is the new life and the Holy Spirit. You no longer have any obligation toward the flesh. It has no claim on you because you died as to your former life.
Romans 8:13. You still have the flesh in you, but you shouldn’t give it an opportunity to manifest itself. If you live according to the flesh, you will die. This must be the case. God’s judgment over the flesh never changes, but now you have the responsibility to deprive the flesh of any possibility to regain authority in your life. By the power the Holy Spirit gives, you have the ability to stop sinning in your body. Though you will never reach a state of sinless perfection here on earth, yet moment by moment you are responsible and able to not sin.
Romans 8:14. Then you will live life with God as God meant it to be. Everyone who is led by the Spirit of God looks like the Son of God, the Lord Jesus. Sons of God are people in whom God recognizes the Son. In Him God found His joy and His pleasure. If you will be led by the Spirit, God will be pleased by it.
Now read Romans 8:8-14 again.
Reflection: How can you kill the workings of the body?
Romans 12:13
If the Spirit Dwells in You
Romans 8:8. For someone who is in the flesh, it is impossible to please God. Being in the flesh means having yourself, your abilities, your labors, your plans and intentions as a center. Even if someone in the flesh would try to please God by keeping the law, this would be unacceptable to God. The starting point is wrong. God has dealt with the flesh, the nature of man corrupted by sin, once and for all. So how then could He accept anything from it? There is a definitive separation between God and the sinful flesh.
Romans 8:9. He who has received God’s Spirit is no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit. It is the Spirit of God who lives inside you. The Spirit of God doesn’t make you important, but Christ. You are connected with Christ and you belong to Him through the Spirit of God. If someone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn’t belong to Him.
Why do these verses suddenly speak of the Spirit of Christ? I think it is to show you that the Spirit you have received is the same Spirit by which Christ was led during His life on earth. When you read the Gospels, you can see this all the time. For example, take the Lord’s temptation by satan in the wilderness in Luke 4 (Luke 4:1). There you read how He, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan to the wilderness. Also when He was in the wilderness, He in His perfect holiness was led around by the Spirit. As a result, He remained standing in temptation. He remained focused on God.
Romans 8:10. With you, the Spirit wants to do the same. The Spirit of God is dwelling in you because Christ is in you. The Spirit of God can only connect Himself with something of Christ. This implies that the body, as used by sin for evil practices, is dead. Otherwise God’s Spirit couldn’t enter it to dwell there. But now, Christ being in you, it is completely right for the Spirit to dwell in you and to have authority over the life you now lead, just as it was with Christ.
Romans 8:11. Another important thing is connected with the indwelling of God’s Spirit within you. This has to do with the resurrection of your mortal body. Your body is still subject to the consequences of sin. It can become sick and it can die, but look at what God has done with the Lord Jesus. God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. How should that be with you? Your body is still mortal. Is this consistent with the Spirit of God dwelling in you, Who has everything to do with life? The answer is that God will raise your mortal body as He has done with the Lord Jesus because His Spirit is dwelling in you. Other verses, like in Philippians 3, tell us this will take place at the return of the Lord Jesus for His own, commonly called the rapture (Philippians 3:21).
Romans 8:12. All of this puts you under a certain obligation. You have become a debtor to live according to the position God has given you. He has provided you with all it takes to live a godly life, that is the new life and the Holy Spirit. You no longer have any obligation toward the flesh. It has no claim on you because you died as to your former life.
Romans 8:13. You still have the flesh in you, but you shouldn’t give it an opportunity to manifest itself. If you live according to the flesh, you will die. This must be the case. God’s judgment over the flesh never changes, but now you have the responsibility to deprive the flesh of any possibility to regain authority in your life. By the power the Holy Spirit gives, you have the ability to stop sinning in your body. Though you will never reach a state of sinless perfection here on earth, yet moment by moment you are responsible and able to not sin.
Romans 8:14. Then you will live life with God as God meant it to be. Everyone who is led by the Spirit of God looks like the Son of God, the Lord Jesus. Sons of God are people in whom God recognizes the Son. In Him God found His joy and His pleasure. If you will be led by the Spirit, God will be pleased by it.
Now read Romans 8:8-14 again.
Reflection: How can you kill the workings of the body?
Romans 12:14
If the Spirit Dwells in You
Romans 8:8. For someone who is in the flesh, it is impossible to please God. Being in the flesh means having yourself, your abilities, your labors, your plans and intentions as a center. Even if someone in the flesh would try to please God by keeping the law, this would be unacceptable to God. The starting point is wrong. God has dealt with the flesh, the nature of man corrupted by sin, once and for all. So how then could He accept anything from it? There is a definitive separation between God and the sinful flesh.
Romans 8:9. He who has received God’s Spirit is no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit. It is the Spirit of God who lives inside you. The Spirit of God doesn’t make you important, but Christ. You are connected with Christ and you belong to Him through the Spirit of God. If someone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn’t belong to Him.
Why do these verses suddenly speak of the Spirit of Christ? I think it is to show you that the Spirit you have received is the same Spirit by which Christ was led during His life on earth. When you read the Gospels, you can see this all the time. For example, take the Lord’s temptation by satan in the wilderness in Luke 4 (Luke 4:1). There you read how He, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan to the wilderness. Also when He was in the wilderness, He in His perfect holiness was led around by the Spirit. As a result, He remained standing in temptation. He remained focused on God.
Romans 8:10. With you, the Spirit wants to do the same. The Spirit of God is dwelling in you because Christ is in you. The Spirit of God can only connect Himself with something of Christ. This implies that the body, as used by sin for evil practices, is dead. Otherwise God’s Spirit couldn’t enter it to dwell there. But now, Christ being in you, it is completely right for the Spirit to dwell in you and to have authority over the life you now lead, just as it was with Christ.
Romans 8:11. Another important thing is connected with the indwelling of God’s Spirit within you. This has to do with the resurrection of your mortal body. Your body is still subject to the consequences of sin. It can become sick and it can die, but look at what God has done with the Lord Jesus. God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. How should that be with you? Your body is still mortal. Is this consistent with the Spirit of God dwelling in you, Who has everything to do with life? The answer is that God will raise your mortal body as He has done with the Lord Jesus because His Spirit is dwelling in you. Other verses, like in Philippians 3, tell us this will take place at the return of the Lord Jesus for His own, commonly called the rapture (Philippians 3:21).
Romans 8:12. All of this puts you under a certain obligation. You have become a debtor to live according to the position God has given you. He has provided you with all it takes to live a godly life, that is the new life and the Holy Spirit. You no longer have any obligation toward the flesh. It has no claim on you because you died as to your former life.
Romans 8:13. You still have the flesh in you, but you shouldn’t give it an opportunity to manifest itself. If you live according to the flesh, you will die. This must be the case. God’s judgment over the flesh never changes, but now you have the responsibility to deprive the flesh of any possibility to regain authority in your life. By the power the Holy Spirit gives, you have the ability to stop sinning in your body. Though you will never reach a state of sinless perfection here on earth, yet moment by moment you are responsible and able to not sin.
Romans 8:14. Then you will live life with God as God meant it to be. Everyone who is led by the Spirit of God looks like the Son of God, the Lord Jesus. Sons of God are people in whom God recognizes the Son. In Him God found His joy and His pleasure. If you will be led by the Spirit, God will be pleased by it.
Now read Romans 8:8-14 again.
Reflection: How can you kill the workings of the body?
Romans 12:15
If the Spirit Dwells in You
Romans 8:8. For someone who is in the flesh, it is impossible to please God. Being in the flesh means having yourself, your abilities, your labors, your plans and intentions as a center. Even if someone in the flesh would try to please God by keeping the law, this would be unacceptable to God. The starting point is wrong. God has dealt with the flesh, the nature of man corrupted by sin, once and for all. So how then could He accept anything from it? There is a definitive separation between God and the sinful flesh.
Romans 8:9. He who has received God’s Spirit is no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit. It is the Spirit of God who lives inside you. The Spirit of God doesn’t make you important, but Christ. You are connected with Christ and you belong to Him through the Spirit of God. If someone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn’t belong to Him.
Why do these verses suddenly speak of the Spirit of Christ? I think it is to show you that the Spirit you have received is the same Spirit by which Christ was led during His life on earth. When you read the Gospels, you can see this all the time. For example, take the Lord’s temptation by satan in the wilderness in Luke 4 (Luke 4:1). There you read how He, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan to the wilderness. Also when He was in the wilderness, He in His perfect holiness was led around by the Spirit. As a result, He remained standing in temptation. He remained focused on God.
Romans 8:10. With you, the Spirit wants to do the same. The Spirit of God is dwelling in you because Christ is in you. The Spirit of God can only connect Himself with something of Christ. This implies that the body, as used by sin for evil practices, is dead. Otherwise God’s Spirit couldn’t enter it to dwell there. But now, Christ being in you, it is completely right for the Spirit to dwell in you and to have authority over the life you now lead, just as it was with Christ.
Romans 8:11. Another important thing is connected with the indwelling of God’s Spirit within you. This has to do with the resurrection of your mortal body. Your body is still subject to the consequences of sin. It can become sick and it can die, but look at what God has done with the Lord Jesus. God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. How should that be with you? Your body is still mortal. Is this consistent with the Spirit of God dwelling in you, Who has everything to do with life? The answer is that God will raise your mortal body as He has done with the Lord Jesus because His Spirit is dwelling in you. Other verses, like in Philippians 3, tell us this will take place at the return of the Lord Jesus for His own, commonly called the rapture (Philippians 3:21).
Romans 8:12. All of this puts you under a certain obligation. You have become a debtor to live according to the position God has given you. He has provided you with all it takes to live a godly life, that is the new life and the Holy Spirit. You no longer have any obligation toward the flesh. It has no claim on you because you died as to your former life.
Romans 8:13. You still have the flesh in you, but you shouldn’t give it an opportunity to manifest itself. If you live according to the flesh, you will die. This must be the case. God’s judgment over the flesh never changes, but now you have the responsibility to deprive the flesh of any possibility to regain authority in your life. By the power the Holy Spirit gives, you have the ability to stop sinning in your body. Though you will never reach a state of sinless perfection here on earth, yet moment by moment you are responsible and able to not sin.
Romans 8:14. Then you will live life with God as God meant it to be. Everyone who is led by the Spirit of God looks like the Son of God, the Lord Jesus. Sons of God are people in whom God recognizes the Son. In Him God found His joy and His pleasure. If you will be led by the Spirit, God will be pleased by it.
Now read Romans 8:8-14 again.
Reflection: How can you kill the workings of the body?
Romans 12:16
If the Spirit Dwells in You
Romans 8:8. For someone who is in the flesh, it is impossible to please God. Being in the flesh means having yourself, your abilities, your labors, your plans and intentions as a center. Even if someone in the flesh would try to please God by keeping the law, this would be unacceptable to God. The starting point is wrong. God has dealt with the flesh, the nature of man corrupted by sin, once and for all. So how then could He accept anything from it? There is a definitive separation between God and the sinful flesh.
Romans 8:9. He who has received God’s Spirit is no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit. It is the Spirit of God who lives inside you. The Spirit of God doesn’t make you important, but Christ. You are connected with Christ and you belong to Him through the Spirit of God. If someone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn’t belong to Him.
Why do these verses suddenly speak of the Spirit of Christ? I think it is to show you that the Spirit you have received is the same Spirit by which Christ was led during His life on earth. When you read the Gospels, you can see this all the time. For example, take the Lord’s temptation by satan in the wilderness in Luke 4 (Luke 4:1). There you read how He, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan to the wilderness. Also when He was in the wilderness, He in His perfect holiness was led around by the Spirit. As a result, He remained standing in temptation. He remained focused on God.
Romans 8:10. With you, the Spirit wants to do the same. The Spirit of God is dwelling in you because Christ is in you. The Spirit of God can only connect Himself with something of Christ. This implies that the body, as used by sin for evil practices, is dead. Otherwise God’s Spirit couldn’t enter it to dwell there. But now, Christ being in you, it is completely right for the Spirit to dwell in you and to have authority over the life you now lead, just as it was with Christ.
Romans 8:11. Another important thing is connected with the indwelling of God’s Spirit within you. This has to do with the resurrection of your mortal body. Your body is still subject to the consequences of sin. It can become sick and it can die, but look at what God has done with the Lord Jesus. God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. How should that be with you? Your body is still mortal. Is this consistent with the Spirit of God dwelling in you, Who has everything to do with life? The answer is that God will raise your mortal body as He has done with the Lord Jesus because His Spirit is dwelling in you. Other verses, like in Philippians 3, tell us this will take place at the return of the Lord Jesus for His own, commonly called the rapture (Philippians 3:21).
Romans 8:12. All of this puts you under a certain obligation. You have become a debtor to live according to the position God has given you. He has provided you with all it takes to live a godly life, that is the new life and the Holy Spirit. You no longer have any obligation toward the flesh. It has no claim on you because you died as to your former life.
Romans 8:13. You still have the flesh in you, but you shouldn’t give it an opportunity to manifest itself. If you live according to the flesh, you will die. This must be the case. God’s judgment over the flesh never changes, but now you have the responsibility to deprive the flesh of any possibility to regain authority in your life. By the power the Holy Spirit gives, you have the ability to stop sinning in your body. Though you will never reach a state of sinless perfection here on earth, yet moment by moment you are responsible and able to not sin.
Romans 8:14. Then you will live life with God as God meant it to be. Everyone who is led by the Spirit of God looks like the Son of God, the Lord Jesus. Sons of God are people in whom God recognizes the Son. In Him God found His joy and His pleasure. If you will be led by the Spirit, God will be pleased by it.
Now read Romans 8:8-14 again.
Reflection: How can you kill the workings of the body?
Romans 12:17
If the Spirit Dwells in You
Romans 8:8. For someone who is in the flesh, it is impossible to please God. Being in the flesh means having yourself, your abilities, your labors, your plans and intentions as a center. Even if someone in the flesh would try to please God by keeping the law, this would be unacceptable to God. The starting point is wrong. God has dealt with the flesh, the nature of man corrupted by sin, once and for all. So how then could He accept anything from it? There is a definitive separation between God and the sinful flesh.
Romans 8:9. He who has received God’s Spirit is no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit. It is the Spirit of God who lives inside you. The Spirit of God doesn’t make you important, but Christ. You are connected with Christ and you belong to Him through the Spirit of God. If someone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn’t belong to Him.
Why do these verses suddenly speak of the Spirit of Christ? I think it is to show you that the Spirit you have received is the same Spirit by which Christ was led during His life on earth. When you read the Gospels, you can see this all the time. For example, take the Lord’s temptation by satan in the wilderness in Luke 4 (Luke 4:1). There you read how He, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan to the wilderness. Also when He was in the wilderness, He in His perfect holiness was led around by the Spirit. As a result, He remained standing in temptation. He remained focused on God.
Romans 8:10. With you, the Spirit wants to do the same. The Spirit of God is dwelling in you because Christ is in you. The Spirit of God can only connect Himself with something of Christ. This implies that the body, as used by sin for evil practices, is dead. Otherwise God’s Spirit couldn’t enter it to dwell there. But now, Christ being in you, it is completely right for the Spirit to dwell in you and to have authority over the life you now lead, just as it was with Christ.
Romans 8:11. Another important thing is connected with the indwelling of God’s Spirit within you. This has to do with the resurrection of your mortal body. Your body is still subject to the consequences of sin. It can become sick and it can die, but look at what God has done with the Lord Jesus. God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. How should that be with you? Your body is still mortal. Is this consistent with the Spirit of God dwelling in you, Who has everything to do with life? The answer is that God will raise your mortal body as He has done with the Lord Jesus because His Spirit is dwelling in you. Other verses, like in Philippians 3, tell us this will take place at the return of the Lord Jesus for His own, commonly called the rapture (Philippians 3:21).
Romans 8:12. All of this puts you under a certain obligation. You have become a debtor to live according to the position God has given you. He has provided you with all it takes to live a godly life, that is the new life and the Holy Spirit. You no longer have any obligation toward the flesh. It has no claim on you because you died as to your former life.
Romans 8:13. You still have the flesh in you, but you shouldn’t give it an opportunity to manifest itself. If you live according to the flesh, you will die. This must be the case. God’s judgment over the flesh never changes, but now you have the responsibility to deprive the flesh of any possibility to regain authority in your life. By the power the Holy Spirit gives, you have the ability to stop sinning in your body. Though you will never reach a state of sinless perfection here on earth, yet moment by moment you are responsible and able to not sin.
Romans 8:14. Then you will live life with God as God meant it to be. Everyone who is led by the Spirit of God looks like the Son of God, the Lord Jesus. Sons of God are people in whom God recognizes the Son. In Him God found His joy and His pleasure. If you will be led by the Spirit, God will be pleased by it.
Now read Romans 8:8-14 again.
Reflection: How can you kill the workings of the body?
Romans 12:18
If the Spirit Dwells in You
Romans 8:8. For someone who is in the flesh, it is impossible to please God. Being in the flesh means having yourself, your abilities, your labors, your plans and intentions as a center. Even if someone in the flesh would try to please God by keeping the law, this would be unacceptable to God. The starting point is wrong. God has dealt with the flesh, the nature of man corrupted by sin, once and for all. So how then could He accept anything from it? There is a definitive separation between God and the sinful flesh.
Romans 8:9. He who has received God’s Spirit is no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit. It is the Spirit of God who lives inside you. The Spirit of God doesn’t make you important, but Christ. You are connected with Christ and you belong to Him through the Spirit of God. If someone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn’t belong to Him.
Why do these verses suddenly speak of the Spirit of Christ? I think it is to show you that the Spirit you have received is the same Spirit by which Christ was led during His life on earth. When you read the Gospels, you can see this all the time. For example, take the Lord’s temptation by satan in the wilderness in Luke 4 (Luke 4:1). There you read how He, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan to the wilderness. Also when He was in the wilderness, He in His perfect holiness was led around by the Spirit. As a result, He remained standing in temptation. He remained focused on God.
Romans 8:10. With you, the Spirit wants to do the same. The Spirit of God is dwelling in you because Christ is in you. The Spirit of God can only connect Himself with something of Christ. This implies that the body, as used by sin for evil practices, is dead. Otherwise God’s Spirit couldn’t enter it to dwell there. But now, Christ being in you, it is completely right for the Spirit to dwell in you and to have authority over the life you now lead, just as it was with Christ.
Romans 8:11. Another important thing is connected with the indwelling of God’s Spirit within you. This has to do with the resurrection of your mortal body. Your body is still subject to the consequences of sin. It can become sick and it can die, but look at what God has done with the Lord Jesus. God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. How should that be with you? Your body is still mortal. Is this consistent with the Spirit of God dwelling in you, Who has everything to do with life? The answer is that God will raise your mortal body as He has done with the Lord Jesus because His Spirit is dwelling in you. Other verses, like in Philippians 3, tell us this will take place at the return of the Lord Jesus for His own, commonly called the rapture (Philippians 3:21).
Romans 8:12. All of this puts you under a certain obligation. You have become a debtor to live according to the position God has given you. He has provided you with all it takes to live a godly life, that is the new life and the Holy Spirit. You no longer have any obligation toward the flesh. It has no claim on you because you died as to your former life.
Romans 8:13. You still have the flesh in you, but you shouldn’t give it an opportunity to manifest itself. If you live according to the flesh, you will die. This must be the case. God’s judgment over the flesh never changes, but now you have the responsibility to deprive the flesh of any possibility to regain authority in your life. By the power the Holy Spirit gives, you have the ability to stop sinning in your body. Though you will never reach a state of sinless perfection here on earth, yet moment by moment you are responsible and able to not sin.
Romans 8:14. Then you will live life with God as God meant it to be. Everyone who is led by the Spirit of God looks like the Son of God, the Lord Jesus. Sons of God are people in whom God recognizes the Son. In Him God found His joy and His pleasure. If you will be led by the Spirit, God will be pleased by it.
Now read Romans 8:8-14 again.
Reflection: How can you kill the workings of the body?
Romans 12:19
Children and Heirs of God
Romans 8:15. Being led by the Spirit is quite different from planning your life according to some law. If your rule of life is a law, then you’re nothing but a slave to it. A slave doesn’t have a tender and intimate relationship with his master. He must simply do what he is told. In the back of the mind, there is always the fear of doing something wrong.
The Spirit, that is, the new life you have received, has nothing to do with slavery and fear. The Spirit you have received is a Spirit of adoption. There’s the difference. Through this you can address God as Father. You cry out: “Abba, Father!” This indicates a trusting and friendly relationship. You know the Father as Someone Who is very close to you and to Whom you have been brought very close. He loves you and you trust Him completely. You have been brought into a family relationship with Him. You have become His child.
Romans 8:16. The Holy Spirit dwelling in you testifies with your spirit, that is, the new life you have received, that you are a child of God. You are a child of your parents because you have been born out of them. This is a completed, irreversible fact. Nothing can change this. Similarly, you’re a child of God because you have been born of God. Nothing can change this either. Hence it can be said that once a child of God, always a child of God. In a child the features of the parents are visible. Likewise, God’s features find their expression in a child of God. In Philippians 2 you can read about this, but there it addresses more your responsibility (Philippians 2:14-16). Here in Romans 8, it speaks more of your privileges. This chapter is full of them.
Romans 8:17. If you’re a child, then you’re an heir as well. An heir is someone who receives property from someone else. God is the Owner of all creation. He will give His property to you when you are glorified with Christ. Christ is the Heir and you are a fellow heir with Him. Whatever you receive, it is always in connection with Him. This includes suffering. If you suffer with Him, it proves you possess the new life. Here it is the kind of suffering our Lord Jesus knew when on earth. He suffered in this creation when He saw what sin had done and how it was doing its devastating work.
Romans 8:18. You will suffer in the same way if you see the consequences of sin around you. What misuse man makes of what God has created! He uses everything for his own glory and satisfaction. Don’t you long for the moment when the inheritance, the creation, will again be in the hands of its rightful Owner? Paul did. He was looking forward to the future glory he was going to see. The suffering he had to bear was nothing compared with the future glory. For us, this is an encouraging lesson. The more this glorious future becomes a reality to you, the more you will be able to bear the unpleasant things you experience as a believer.
Romans 8:19-20. What does the “revealing of the sons of God” mean? This means a moment is coming when all the sons of God, all the believers, will visibly appear in this creation to reign over it together with the Lord Jesus. As a result of man’s mismanagement, creation fails to yield as much as God put in it. Despite all the attempts of man to reach a fair distribution of creation’s riches, the chaos is constantly increasing. Man trusts in his abilities, but forgets he is fallen in sin. He has dragged creation along with him in his fall. So, creation has been made subject to vanity, not of its will, but by the conscious sin of man.
Romans 8:21. And yet, there is hope for creation. It will be set free. Currently the curse rests on creation like a slave’s yoke. You can see this by the corruption that attaches itself to everything. The corruption of the creation means that creation has been pulled downward to a lower state. She no longer has the glorious state of Eden. This pulling down is because of the corruption that entered creation along with sin. But the moment is close when the children of God will be in glory. When the Lord Jesus takes them away, they will really be free and out of the reach of the corruption in creation. And soon afterward, the creation itself will be set free. Do you also look forward to this?
Now read Romans 8:15-21 again.
Reflection: Can you say what Paul says in Romans 8:18?
Romans 12:20
Children and Heirs of God
Romans 8:15. Being led by the Spirit is quite different from planning your life according to some law. If your rule of life is a law, then you’re nothing but a slave to it. A slave doesn’t have a tender and intimate relationship with his master. He must simply do what he is told. In the back of the mind, there is always the fear of doing something wrong.
The Spirit, that is, the new life you have received, has nothing to do with slavery and fear. The Spirit you have received is a Spirit of adoption. There’s the difference. Through this you can address God as Father. You cry out: “Abba, Father!” This indicates a trusting and friendly relationship. You know the Father as Someone Who is very close to you and to Whom you have been brought very close. He loves you and you trust Him completely. You have been brought into a family relationship with Him. You have become His child.
Romans 8:16. The Holy Spirit dwelling in you testifies with your spirit, that is, the new life you have received, that you are a child of God. You are a child of your parents because you have been born out of them. This is a completed, irreversible fact. Nothing can change this. Similarly, you’re a child of God because you have been born of God. Nothing can change this either. Hence it can be said that once a child of God, always a child of God. In a child the features of the parents are visible. Likewise, God’s features find their expression in a child of God. In Philippians 2 you can read about this, but there it addresses more your responsibility (Philippians 2:14-16). Here in Romans 8, it speaks more of your privileges. This chapter is full of them.
Romans 8:17. If you’re a child, then you’re an heir as well. An heir is someone who receives property from someone else. God is the Owner of all creation. He will give His property to you when you are glorified with Christ. Christ is the Heir and you are a fellow heir with Him. Whatever you receive, it is always in connection with Him. This includes suffering. If you suffer with Him, it proves you possess the new life. Here it is the kind of suffering our Lord Jesus knew when on earth. He suffered in this creation when He saw what sin had done and how it was doing its devastating work.
Romans 8:18. You will suffer in the same way if you see the consequences of sin around you. What misuse man makes of what God has created! He uses everything for his own glory and satisfaction. Don’t you long for the moment when the inheritance, the creation, will again be in the hands of its rightful Owner? Paul did. He was looking forward to the future glory he was going to see. The suffering he had to bear was nothing compared with the future glory. For us, this is an encouraging lesson. The more this glorious future becomes a reality to you, the more you will be able to bear the unpleasant things you experience as a believer.
Romans 8:19-20. What does the “revealing of the sons of God” mean? This means a moment is coming when all the sons of God, all the believers, will visibly appear in this creation to reign over it together with the Lord Jesus. As a result of man’s mismanagement, creation fails to yield as much as God put in it. Despite all the attempts of man to reach a fair distribution of creation’s riches, the chaos is constantly increasing. Man trusts in his abilities, but forgets he is fallen in sin. He has dragged creation along with him in his fall. So, creation has been made subject to vanity, not of its will, but by the conscious sin of man.
Romans 8:21. And yet, there is hope for creation. It will be set free. Currently the curse rests on creation like a slave’s yoke. You can see this by the corruption that attaches itself to everything. The corruption of the creation means that creation has been pulled downward to a lower state. She no longer has the glorious state of Eden. This pulling down is because of the corruption that entered creation along with sin. But the moment is close when the children of God will be in glory. When the Lord Jesus takes them away, they will really be free and out of the reach of the corruption in creation. And soon afterward, the creation itself will be set free. Do you also look forward to this?
Now read Romans 8:15-21 again.
Reflection: Can you say what Paul says in Romans 8:18?
Romans 12:21
Children and Heirs of God
Romans 8:15. Being led by the Spirit is quite different from planning your life according to some law. If your rule of life is a law, then you’re nothing but a slave to it. A slave doesn’t have a tender and intimate relationship with his master. He must simply do what he is told. In the back of the mind, there is always the fear of doing something wrong.
The Spirit, that is, the new life you have received, has nothing to do with slavery and fear. The Spirit you have received is a Spirit of adoption. There’s the difference. Through this you can address God as Father. You cry out: “Abba, Father!” This indicates a trusting and friendly relationship. You know the Father as Someone Who is very close to you and to Whom you have been brought very close. He loves you and you trust Him completely. You have been brought into a family relationship with Him. You have become His child.
Romans 8:16. The Holy Spirit dwelling in you testifies with your spirit, that is, the new life you have received, that you are a child of God. You are a child of your parents because you have been born out of them. This is a completed, irreversible fact. Nothing can change this. Similarly, you’re a child of God because you have been born of God. Nothing can change this either. Hence it can be said that once a child of God, always a child of God. In a child the features of the parents are visible. Likewise, God’s features find their expression in a child of God. In Philippians 2 you can read about this, but there it addresses more your responsibility (Philippians 2:14-16). Here in Romans 8, it speaks more of your privileges. This chapter is full of them.
Romans 8:17. If you’re a child, then you’re an heir as well. An heir is someone who receives property from someone else. God is the Owner of all creation. He will give His property to you when you are glorified with Christ. Christ is the Heir and you are a fellow heir with Him. Whatever you receive, it is always in connection with Him. This includes suffering. If you suffer with Him, it proves you possess the new life. Here it is the kind of suffering our Lord Jesus knew when on earth. He suffered in this creation when He saw what sin had done and how it was doing its devastating work.
Romans 8:18. You will suffer in the same way if you see the consequences of sin around you. What misuse man makes of what God has created! He uses everything for his own glory and satisfaction. Don’t you long for the moment when the inheritance, the creation, will again be in the hands of its rightful Owner? Paul did. He was looking forward to the future glory he was going to see. The suffering he had to bear was nothing compared with the future glory. For us, this is an encouraging lesson. The more this glorious future becomes a reality to you, the more you will be able to bear the unpleasant things you experience as a believer.
Romans 8:19-20. What does the “revealing of the sons of God” mean? This means a moment is coming when all the sons of God, all the believers, will visibly appear in this creation to reign over it together with the Lord Jesus. As a result of man’s mismanagement, creation fails to yield as much as God put in it. Despite all the attempts of man to reach a fair distribution of creation’s riches, the chaos is constantly increasing. Man trusts in his abilities, but forgets he is fallen in sin. He has dragged creation along with him in his fall. So, creation has been made subject to vanity, not of its will, but by the conscious sin of man.
Romans 8:21. And yet, there is hope for creation. It will be set free. Currently the curse rests on creation like a slave’s yoke. You can see this by the corruption that attaches itself to everything. The corruption of the creation means that creation has been pulled downward to a lower state. She no longer has the glorious state of Eden. This pulling down is because of the corruption that entered creation along with sin. But the moment is close when the children of God will be in glory. When the Lord Jesus takes them away, they will really be free and out of the reach of the corruption in creation. And soon afterward, the creation itself will be set free. Do you also look forward to this?
Now read Romans 8:15-21 again.
Reflection: Can you say what Paul says in Romans 8:18?