Do you ever find yourself wrestling with competing ideas in your head?  I think we have all had times where we have struggled between different choices.  The Bible talks about our ongoing battle between our flesh and the spirit.  Let’s look together at Paul’s words found in Romans 8 on this matter.  

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.”

To get a full picture of this passage we need to find out what the first word – Therefore is there for.  Looking back at Romans 7 Paul talks about his own wrestling between the flesh and spirit.  He talks about how he doesn’t do the good he wants to do but sometimes it is the flesh, that he is trying to avoid that he falls into.  I know that we have all experienced this a time or two.  That’s why Romans 8 is so very important.  Jesus has freed us from law of sin and death and given us the freedom to live by the law of the spirit.  We are told to set our minds on the things of the spirit so that we would live more and more by the spirit and not our flesh.  Yet even as we all face times of our own struggle and failure we fall back to that same amazing first verse.  There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus.   When God looks at us He doesn’t see our failure He sees the righteousness of Jesus.  This helps us all to be free to live by the spirit without a fear of failure but with a spirit of thankfulness for all God has done in our lives.  That’s a truth that we all can hold on to!

In His Grip,

Pastor Dave