There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law — indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.
Romans 8:1-11 – NRSV
Do we move through this world like a “dead man walking”, moving as if surely the end were too grievous to bear? Is our demeanor defeated? Is our language languid? Or is there something different about us that is visible from how we look and act?
Shouldn’t we instead be men and women who are totally alive? Should not the spirit enliven our appearance in our bodies now that the flesh is no longer our master? Surely we should behave in a way that is consistent with being free forever of condemnation. Surely we should behave like the saved. Surely the Spirit dwells in us, and therefore Jesus is lived through us so that God can be visible in us.
Let us live into our promises today.
Blessings,
Ron
