There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 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 8:1-11 ESV)
I love Romans because it really makes you think. You have to wrestle with Paul and your intellect and really chew on what is written to try to get it in you so you can integrate it into your life. But it raises just as many questions as it answers…
You see this passage for instance says that he who lives in the Spirit and not the flesh has been found to be in Christ and there for there is no condemnation for them. But who is living in the Spirit? And who is living in the flesh? Who is in Christ?
Those who set their minds on things of the flesh follow the flesh. But what does that mean? Because this person and their mind is hostile towards God. But what does it mean to follow the flesh or dwell in the flesh? We are not thinking about God or what is best for the other. And that does not mean that we are forcing the other to conform to some code that we ourselves do not follow. The law of the Israelites is not what gets us to heaven and is not what we need to force others to follow when we do not follow and when Jesus and his disciples did not follow it. They broke the oral law that was transmitted and was thought to be just as important as the rest of the written law. This code is not what saves us and makes us right with God. Only Jesus does this. So if you think you are right with God, please remove the log from your own eye, before helping me remove the plank from mine. Yes I know that I have sinned and continue to do so even though I do not want to. We do the things we do not want and can not follow after Jesus… Jesus asks us to follow Him and to be like Him. Not judge but accept the other where they are and love them as they are. Knowing that the relationship will make them to be who they need to be. Change is not necessary before coming to Jesus Jesus will do it all. We can not expect people to be perfect or not sinful before they come to Jesus, other wise we all would have to leave.
So to live in the Spirit is to think of the other, before yourself.
aSacredRebel 