Spirit vs Flesh

I wanted us to focus on the idea of “beginnings” because we are at a beginning of sorts. We are about to begin a year-long Bible study called Activate. This Bible study is all about the building blocks of our faith. We’re going to spend the next year focusing on core concepts that help us lay the foundation of a faith that lasts. It’s going to be an awesome time of learning about the groundwork of what makes our faith authentic. Before we kick things off, though, we’re going to start this year with an introductory lesson that serves as a challenge of sorts. Let’s get started.

What are the most significant obstacles that prevent Christian teenagers from living a life that is like Christ?

What are the temptations teenagers face on a regular basis?

In your own words, why is it so hard to live the Christian life each day in your context?

Each of us has two natures wrestling for control

We are all born with a sin nature. We can observe the world and know this. Kids fighting over toys. People road raging on the internet. Also biblically we know this to be true because Romans tells us that all have fallen short of the glory of God. However, when we accept Christ the Holy Spirit in dwells us and gives us another nature and that's our spirit and the spiritual side of things. These two aspects are in contention with one of the other. We simultaneously want to resist God and accept Him.

We must take off our sinful nature

Paul starts this passage with talking about this being raised with Christ. What he means by raised with Christ is salvation. We have been brought out of death from sins and into life with Christ Jesus. He immediataely juxtaposes a life living for the world and a life living for Jesus.

Paul then continues is vs 3 to give us a reason why we should not focus on our flesh but on the spirit. When we trust in Jesus as our Lord and saviour Paul literally says we died and rose again. The reason why we focus on the Lord and not the Earth is because we have died to that way of thinking. We are new creatures now. When we enter into a relationship with Christ who we are in that moment dies. Think about your life before you professed your faith in Christ. Now, think about your life now. Is your old self dead? Or does the life you live look a lot like someone who has never been made new by faith in Jesus? You can’t have it both ways. You can’t profess faith in Christ and continue to live as if your life hasn’t been radically changed by Jesus. The Bible really doesn’t present that as an option. Paul has a lot to say about this in vs. 5, and it supports our second teaching point. Let’s take another look at what he says here.

Paul makes it clear that there is no place for these things anymore. He even uses the past tense of things that we used to do meaning that we are not to live this way anymore.

We must put on our new life in Christ

Vs 9-10 take us into the third point. You see we have laid down the old self so that we may take up the new self. The imagery used here is in reference to a piece of clothing. We take something off and put something back on. Say i needed a thicker jacket in the morning would i take one half off and then put the thicker jacket only on that half of my body. Surely not I would completely take off the thin jacket and completely put on the thicker jacket. In the same way we cant take bits and pieces we need to cast away our dead habits and live for Christ now.

Paul goes on to give us alternatives to living in sin and death. he list characteristics of a life changed by Christ.

We are empowered by Christ to be able to live the new life, but we still have a responsibility in it. Paul used the metaphor of putting on your clothes. You have clothes in your closet, don't you? Just because you have clothes in your closet doesn't mean you can get out of the shower and head straight to school. You have to be intentional about getting dressed. You have to decide to wear your clothes. It is the same with our Christian way of life. Yes, we have the Holy Spirit working to make us more like Christ. But we have to be intentional about how we live. Christ has made this life available, right? Kind of like having clothes in the closet. But we still have to will ourselves to live in this way. We have to choose to pursue Christ every day.