Rom 8:1-3 | KingComments | STEP | . 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. . 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. . 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 ( ). When 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 ( ). 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. . 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. . 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 ( ). 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. . 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 8:1-3

Walking According to the Spirit

Rom 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.

Rom 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.

Rom 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 (2Cor 5:21).

When Rom 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 (Heb 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.

Rom 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.

Rom 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 (Rom 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.

Rom 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?