Walking In The Spirit
So this is the key to not sinning...
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
Galatians 5:16-17
Okay, so how do we accomplish this? I have no idea…but I think if we were to really study Romans we might find the answer. Oddly enough, I think some clues are also in Psalms.
Tomorrow I’m gong to really start to break this section (Romans 8:2-11) down but for now I will just cite it:
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and 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 for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
in order that the righteous 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. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact 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, although 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 Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Romans 8:2-11
So as it stands I see that if we walk in the Spirit we wont gratify our fallen nature. I also see that we are fallen (our body is dead because of sin) so we will never be sin-free until we reside with the Lord in heaven. So what the...this is the new quest to get a better handle on this idea of walking in the Spirit.
Keeping the most important aspect in the front of my mind…we please God because of the work Christ did and He dwells in the believer so therefore we are in fact “in the Spirit” if Christ dwells in us. Okay, so what does that mean? How does Christ “dwell in us?” HMMMM, more to study.
More baptism images:
