Life of a believer and its demonstration.
A person who has died to himself so that Christ can live in him has the assurance of a victorious eternal life. A yielded believer possesses a victorious life because God has delivered him from the power of sin through the body of Jesus Christ. Sinful human beings could not free themselves from the power of sin by the best obedience to the law possible. “For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin he condemned sin in the flesh.” Romans 8:3 – 4, NET. By condemning sin in sinful flesh, God condemned our sinful spirit also. Therefore, the law’s righteous requirement that a sinner dies forever was fully met on the cross at Golgotha. Accordingly, the yielded believers do not walk according to the desires of sinful flesh but according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Those who live according to sinful flesh always feel a need for salvation. Accordingly, they make a great effort to obey the law in the hope of salvation. However, salvation under control by sinful flesh is impossible. The works of law through sinful flesh cannot please God. It is opposed to God. Romans 8:7 – 8. Therefore, those whose life is guided by the sinful flesh will die because they remain condemned for sin. Romans 8:13. Romans 8:13 applies to those who deliberately and habitually live in conformity with sinful flesh. Deliberate, intelligent, or spiritual decisions are irreversible. Eternal life is through Jesus Christ and not through careful obedience to the sinful flesh.
“You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is your life because of righteousness.” Romans 8:9 – 10, NET. The statement “you are not in the flesh but in Spirit” does not mean that the yielded believers are not in the body. The Greek states, “you are not controlled by the flesh but by the Spirit.” The yielded believers will unwillingly fall to the influence of sinful flesh. However, they are not habitually controlled by the flesh. The contrast between the two is more than we could express in English. We must know who and what controls us. The yielded believers have one life. They possess the indestructible life of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the yielded believers conduct themselves as the redeemed ones always. They habitually suppress their sinful nature. The yielded believers are always aware that God has liberated them from the power of sinful nature but not from the presence of it.
Continued in the next blog.
