~ Contrast: Conflict or Victory ~
Series Comment ~ The Scripture contains many
contrasts. In this series we look
briefly at some of them. Just like in our
“Binary” series many of these contrasts represent a choice of this or that.
Scripture
1 (a life of
conflict) ~ “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the
Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that
you do not do the things that you wish” (Galatians 5:17).
“For I
delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the
law of sin which is in my members. O wretched
man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God —
through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:22-25).
Scripture
2 (the way of
victory) ~ “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me
free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God
did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin:
He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might
be fulfilled in us who do not walk 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, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to
be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to
the law of God, nor indeed can be. So
then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
“But you are
not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in
you. Now if anyone does not have the
Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if
Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life
because of righteousness. But if the
Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised
Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His
Spirit who dwells in you.
“Therefore,
brethren, we are debtors — not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you
will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you
will live” (Romans 8:2-13).
“I say then: Walk
in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and
the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that
you do not do the things that you wish.
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. …
“But the
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control. Against such there is no
law. And those who are Christ's have crucified
the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians
5:16-18, 22-25).
~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW
*****
No comments:
Post a Comment