Romans 6, 7 & 8 Part 13

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

In case we miss this! He did just say, “those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” In other words, if we are living with a fitness rulebook, it doesn’t matter how many sit-ups and push ups we do, our fitness instructor will still feel rejected and ignored. We will be wanting him to be impressed with what we have done, and he will just be feeling left out!

"9However, 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." Romans 8:9

Paul is not assuming that all of his readers are born again believers. He is not dividing believers into spirit filled and not spirit filled. This is important. Here Paul is taking the opportunity to preach the gospel while still teaching us about this crucial truth. If you are born again and have accepted Jesus into your life then the Spirit dwells in you that is God's promise.

But there is the problem that those who have the spirit are not living according to the Spirit but according to the flesh.

"10If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness."

This is going back to what Paul was saying chapters ago, those who receive Jesus have been put to death as far as their flesh is concerned.

"11But 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."

This is building up the the great climax. This is God's side of the bargain. God's Spirit in us will give us life. We don't, God's Spirit does. But it doesn't stop there. We need to reach the top of this mountain and the next two verses to me are the top of that mountain we have been climbing. It has been said that if the Bible is a diamond ring of our engagement to God, then Romans is the diamond and Romans 8 is the sparkle in the diamond! I would add to this that, for me, the centre of that sparkle is Romans 8:12 &13. It is the centre because it is dealing with our side of the bargain. We have been asking the question, "If we do not live by the Law then what is it we do do as our side of sanctification?" Once we reach the peek of sanctification, Paul goes onto to tell us wonderful truths like, God works all things together for those who love Him; God will bring those who have started the journey through to glorification and nothing can separate us from the love of God.

But before we go through to receive those truths, let's have a look at what sanctification is for the Christian!

"12So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live."

Firstly, notice Paul says, "We are under obligation." This is not a request, this is something we have agreed to and signed up for. This is what God wants from us and it is His will that we fulfil our obligation.

That is pretty strong what Paul says about "you must die." I could say this is talking about your flesh must die. I could say that this is talking about the likes of Ananius and Sophira who dropped dead because they were living according to the flesh (If that were the case then there wouldn't be many Christians left on the Earth including me!) I could say this is about that those who are of the flesh (the unsaved) will be put to death, so therefore we should not live in the same way as those who will be put to death. But whichever way you cut it, surely the point is, we are not supposed to be living according to the flesh!

Notice it does not say “But if by the LAW you are putting to death the deeds of the flesh!” or "By the WORD" (I can hear certain evangelicals cringing as I say it!) It is by the Spirit that we are putting to death the deeds of the body. Our obligation is to put the deeds of the body to death - by the SPIRIT. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't know how to do that!!!! I mean, if I want to stop doing stuff that I shouldn't do, how do I get hold of God's Spirit and us Him to stop myself? The point is that is a Law attitude, not a Spirit attitude. It isn't us who do it by using the Spirit, it is the Spirit doing it if we allow Him.

The key is in learning to be led by the Spirit, the Spirit will led us into all righteousness, if we are following Him He will get us there. If we are following our flesh we wont get there! There is a great story about a really wide river in one of the Prophets. After you walk 500 yards into the river your ankles are covered. After another 500 yards your knees are covered, another 500 yards and you waist is covered and so on. In other words it takes time, it takes confession and correction. It isn't a case of, "Here's the Law now do it!" It is a case of, "Let me take your hand and lead you!" (I would love to talk about the conscience here, but I will try and do that as an additional study!)

This is not an "away with the fairies" theology! I had a friend who told me that Mary had appeared at the foot of her bed and told her that everything the Catholics say about Mary was true. I pointed out that the Bible is clear that Joseph did not have relations with Mary until after Jesus was born, therefore she wasn't "ever virgin!" To this she said, "I don't care, Mary told me!" Our authority for what we believe is scripture and we must test every spirit against scripture.