“For the law of the Spirit of Life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”
Today’s culture is fast moving away from absolute principals of right and wrong! Everybody is doing what is right in their own eyes. Remind you of anything? As in the days of Noah? Everything is relative; truth and righteousness doesn’t exist except in God!
Two contrary powers are working in our earthly daily lives with focus and purpose! The unseen Prince of our earthly system is wisely deceiving but it won’t always be so. The Bible says this world will pass away but those who do the will of God will live forever. Jesus says that heaven and earth will pass away but His words will not pass away.
The Bible says the mind set upon the flesh is hostile to God for it does not submit to God’s law; those living according to the flesh set their minds on the flesh, they cannot please God! The Bible says the mind set upon the flesh is death but the mind set on the Spirit is LIFE AND PEACE.
Either we are in Christ Jesus, or we are under sin’s rule and judgment! Sin reigns today in a lost worldly system; worldly wise fools are relentlessly fighting for control of earth.
The law of the Spirit of Life has set you and me free from this the law of sin and death. There is a problem here, it is our identity! What is our identity in Christ Jesus? There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus! What does this mean regarding daily decisions in life?
Are we vulnerable when we forget who we are in Christ Jesus? “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus!” This is the focus of the Law of the Spirit of Life indwelling those who are new born creations of God.
The Lord is a Spirit and we are living in His Spirit. We are alive to God in Christ Jesus, and He is alive … in us … spiritually! But we, in our jars of clay, have difficulty grasping what this means in daily experience. Unless we capture this reality in our Spiritual living, we may find ourselves stumbling along in our spiritually-human journey! How do we recognize God’s Spirit in our daily decisions?
If we are born again, if we are in the Lord Jesus, our Spiritual identity includes a relationship with three Spiritual people: (1) Our father God, (2) Our Lord Jesus Christ, and (3) The Holy Spirit, who is actually our living Spiritual mentor!
When Jesus was on earth, before His resurrection from death, He provided physical examples of living resurrection power. John records an episode of giving “living water” to the women at the well in Samaria. When she recognized who Jesus was and consumed His living water, her whole town was impacted by His truth! Today we have literally the resurrection power of Jesus within us. His logos truth is recorded in His holy word and the Holy Spirit reveals His meaning as we consume the logos word within the living fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
Our primary point of reference for LIFE is not worldliness, but spiritual LIFE; we are spiritually alive in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit is our mentor. This is not symbolic! We are to seek the things above not things on the earth. We are the temple of the living God, the Holy Spirit Himself is alive within us! God’s grace is sufficient for us in any and all circumstances when we walk in love, in faith, in Him!
Our creator God is silently watching and waiting while training His sheep in righteousness and faith, grace and truth. It is great to be on the winning side but even greater to be growing in His grace and truth, developing a personal fellowship in Christ Jesus. Ιt is one thing to be on the right side but quite another to “grow in grace and knowledge” of our Lord and King Jesus!
Having eternal life means we have a responsibility, not only to God Himself and Jesus, but to those in this world around us who are in need of this very same eternal grace. God’s promises in Christ Jesus are viable when we are faithful stewards of His grace. We are the “called ones;” we are born again to walk in grace and truth manifesting the glory of God in us to others by sharing His living water!
Grace is God’s provision of spiritual growth provided to those who are born again. Yes, it is the “unmerited favor of God toward man” but it is much more! Grace speaks to God’s discipline, His resurrection power; it speaks to our sanctification as we learn to rely upon the unseen love God poured into our human LIFE when we are in Him. We experience forgiveness of sin (and sins) replaced with the righteousness of God. Now righteous in Christ Jesus, His resurrection power is operative within our fleshly jar of clay. We have the living water of Jesus to share with others also; it is living in our jars of clay.
Our physical temporal mindset and our eternal Spirit are at odds with each other, always have been, always will be. Since we are now living in temporal, fleshly jars of clay, we claim human nature as an excuse for the worldliness we tolerate and engage. We are warned not to mind the things of the flesh. Our price for this sin of compromise is very high, maturity with God through Jesus our Lord. The Law of the Spirit of Life is operating: it has set us free from the law of sin and death; it is part of our grace package!
God is Spirit! When we are “born again” we become a Spiritual person! We become intimate with God as babes in and through Jesus. We must then start growing Spiritually in order to have and know the “mind of Christ” which we possess in Jesus our savior! We are in union with Jesus: His Spirit is joined with our spirit. We have access to His grace and truth experienced by our degrees of faith upon faith, the just by faith shall live.
Through this union with the triune God, we are both heirs and spiritual children through a new creation in Christ Jesus. As children of God, we are to:
(1) Grow in the agape love of God.
(2) Grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus.
(3) Grow in the divine communion of fellowship through the Holy Spirit.
These three behaviors are required by the “born again” child of God to grows into spiritual maturity.
Our salvation requires our participation in the love of the triune Father God, participation in the grace of our loving Christ Jesus, and in the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Our fellowship with God is through the Holy Spirit who will be in us forever!
Our God is a trinity of three persons, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
Paul put it this way: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
These doctrines are threads running through the whole Bible leading into the gospel message of salvation which is the power of God for everyone who believes, revealing the righteousness of God from faith into faith. This is much more than an ending to the second letter to the Corinthians, it summarizes our hope in Jesus the Christ.
When we think in a fleshly way, we are rejecting the resurrection of Jesus in our lives, denying God’s grace and giving ourselves permission to sin. This is not faith; it is a flat denial of God’s word to us at a huge cost to our Spiritual maturity. Jesus provides resurrection power in us while we are living in this fleshly jar of clay but it becomes alive through faith! It is one thing to be in the world but entirely a different thing to be of the world!
This is what the Bible calls sanctification. He has already sanctified us through the resurrection of Jesus but now it is up to us to accept and apply this divine gift of spiritual power by reconciling ourselves back to God. This is our active use of God’s grace, allowing Jesus’ workmanship freedom within us.
Our worldly system is in bondage to the fleshiness of self! This is a Biblical word for sin; those who are children of God have been set free from sin and are appointed into the glory of Christ Jesus which comes into us by the in-working of His grace.
We, who are born again in Christ Jesus, are called to separate ourselves from the world and let the “law of the Spirit of Life” glorify Jesus Himself within our temporal finite jars of flesh. Living in flesh is our opportunity to grow in love, grace and fellowship. It provides our opportunity to understand and discern both the flesh and the Spirit.
When we look at the Bible as a whole complete blook, we begin to see the shape of things from God’s point of view. He doesn’t need to show Himself again physically, He shows Himself every day to those who will see and hear Him Spiritually!
Our God given task is to drink and consume His living water. Its in the water!