A NEW WAY

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 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, 4 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. 5 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. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 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. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 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. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 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.

In Paul is continuing the thought from 7:24-25, where Paul ask the question, “Who will deliber me from this body of death?” Remember that death in God’s eyes is seperation from Him. So, in that, sin ando death are exactly the same. Neither has any degrees or stages. Sin is disobedience to God, to God then, there is no big sin or little sin, but rather, all sin is to miss the standard of holiness that God sets for His children. Death, or ceasation of life, has no degrees. We talk about one being half dead or nearly dead, but in reality they are still fully alive. Death, seperation from God, is not final untill the life giving spirit, our soul, leaves the body at the ceasation of life. At that moment our eternal destination is set, to either spend eternity in the presence of God or be eternally seperated from Him in the depths of Hell. Too many people want to flirt with waithing untill the last possible second. Too many people think they have to clean up their lives before they can come to Christ. Truth is, we can’t clean up our own lives. God offers a complete cleansing and His Spirit to keep us in His embrace.

Think about what it means to be “in Christ.” When a person accepts Christ as Savior and Lord the second public display of that new faith is normally baptism. As Baptist we believe in full submersion batism to symbolically show the new believer has surrendered his life to God through Christ, and the old person has died to self been burried in a watery grave and is raised up to “Walk in the newness of life.” To be “in Christ” is a refrence to baptism, not just of water but a baptism of the Holy Spirit. {There is an old pickle recipe that dates back to the first century. In that recipe it states that the item to be pickled is to be “baptised” in the brine of salts and vinager.” Think about what the brine does to the item submerged. It is remarkabley changed. It softens up, it changes flavor, it becomes pliable, the same things happens to us when we are baptised, or submerged, in the Holy Spirit, our whole contanence changes.

Heirs with Christ

I. Those who live in the Spirit

1. Paul speaks of two contrasting types of people to clearify his comment of no condemnation.

What does condemnation mean? It is more than the sense of judgement, it is the sense of eternal destruction, a complete seperation from God.

Notice, the KJV has a bracketed clause seperated to clearify Paul’s statement. It is, “Who walk not after the flesh,” KJV states, “ who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

📷📷📷📷📷📷📷📷📷📷📷📷📷📷📷

1.

To walk in the Spirit is to fully follow God’s direction in our lives. To do so requires a surrendered posture to Christ as Savior.

To walk after the flesh is to chase one’s own desires.

2. Paul writes about this in ,

25. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

a. We are not walking for ourselves but as His representative.

b. We can walk in the courage of Christ that we are a new creation, set apart for His service.

II.

The law of the Spirit

a. When Paul speaks of the law of the Spirit he is speaking of the guidance that God offers His children.

b. “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize youwith the Holy Spirit and fire.” Mat. 3:11