Your victory is in living life in the Spirit.

Romans 7 and 8 have been a challenge for many believers because they do not understand that we do not serve God in the flesh but in the Spirit – John 4:24. The last verse of chapter seven tells us the answer to the challenges that are faced by a carnal (led by the five senses) believer; the victory is in living in Christ not personal strength.

According to the 8th chapter of the book of Romans we cannot completely overcome our carnality by our strength, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to rule us and then we will see the manifestation of our freedom from evil desires.

We are either ruled by the Holy Spirit or we are ruled by our desires. Romans 6:14 says sin will not dominate us because we are not under the law. The law serves to condemn and lead to death (2 Corinthians 3:7&9). The first step to overcoming sin is to accept that the law no longer condemns you if you are in Christ Jesus because the law demand was fully paid in the body of Christ – Romans 8:3.

Romans 8 tells us that we need to take our eyes off our carnality (being controlled by our five senses) and focus on who we are in the Spirit (what Christ accomplished for us). To be carnally minded brings death, being spiritually minded produce life and peace where there is death – Romans 8:6.

Living in the Spirit takes faith. Faith believes and confesses. If you believe what the Lord says about you, you will confess it even though in the natural things may look differently to what you believe. 2 Corinthians 4:13 says – And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak.

We must believe and focus on how we are before God (righteous and holy in Christ Jesus), that is what transforms our behavior. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says – But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

The key knowledge for one to be able to live in the Spirit is that IF YOU ARE IN CHRIST YOU WILL NOT BE CONDEMNED BY GOD. Your conscience and people may condemn you but God does not and will not condemn you. Romans 8:1 & 2 Corinthians 5:21.

As Christians we are called to live our lives as a blessing to others (John 13:34). We are able to do that when we first accept God’s unconditional love for us (1 John 4:19). How can we give love to others when we thing God doesn’t love us for whatever reason? You can only give what you have.

Remember that self-centeredness is the root of all sin, while Christ-centeredness is the answer to the desire to sin – Romans 8.5. E.g. will it be easy to steal while confessing that God has supplied all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus? We overcome the power of sin when we take our focus away from sin and confess our right-standing before God. That is faith – 2 Corinthians 4:13.

We are not set free from sin and death by our performance but by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:2,9,11,13).

Life in the Spirit requires faith to call those things that you don’t see in the natural as though they exist – Romans 4:17. Confess who you are in Christ, you will see your life being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit (not your strength) – Galatians 5:16.

Love Revealed – Part 5

God never wanted to destroy us, human beings, for our sins, He always believed in His plan to rescue us and bring us back to where we relate to Him without guilt and shame as the Holy Spirit transforms us back to who He created us to be (Ephesians 1:4-6).

So God started revealing HIS LOVE STORY by giving us a PICTURE OF JESUS in the form of innocent animals being killed in humans’ place to 1. provide for their needs (Genesis 3:21), 2. please God so that He could bless them (Genesis 4:4), and 3. remove their sins so that He could freely bless them (Exodus 20:24). Before Jesus came God would rather kill an innocent animal than kill a human being for his/her sin. God fully revealed His Love Story when He killed His Son in the place of human beings (2 Corinthians 5:21). THIS IS LOVE IN ACTION!.

At times we do not acknowledge the love of God that was revealed under the Old Covenant but we interpret it as God showing favoritism. Let’s look at David and the nation of Israel to see the power of God’s love.

The Bible describes David as the man after God’s heart (Acts 13:22). If you are familiar with the Bible you know about David’s blunders. Yet God calls him a man after His own heart. In this story we see that GOD IS LOOKING FOR SINCERITY NOT PERFECTION, just like He told Abraham (Genesis 17:1). God knows that if you are sincere in your relationship with Him you will not be pleased to disobey Him such that you will see your life change for better as you spend time with Him in prayer and His Word (Romans 12:2 & 2 Corinthians 3:18).

Numbers 23:21 tells us that God did not OBSERVE sin in Jacob, nor did He SEE mischief in Israel. This verse doesn’t say there was no sin and mischief in Israel, He didn’t observe or see sin and mischief because He had forgiven Israel. Therefore Balaam could not curse but bless them (verses 18-20). God ensured that sorcery or divination did not work against Jacob not because they didn’t sin but because God loved them and He wanted to show forth His goodness (verses 22&23). This is what He wants to do for those who believe in Him (Romans 4:6-8).

When Israel was passing Edom as they were wondering in the wilderness they became very discouraged and murmured against God and Moses (Numbers 21:4-6). This is not the first time that they murmured against God. But this time God sent fiery serpents as punishment for murmuring. By this time Israel was under the Law Covenant. This covenant stated that if they did good God would bless them but if they didn’t do good they would be punished (Exodus 20). So, God was within His rights to punish them for murmuring. (In future we will look at the purpose of the Law and the fact that we live under a different covenant to the one that Israel lived under. Covenants dictate God’s way of dealing with people hence we see different people experiencing different treatment from God.)

When Israel repented of their sin, murmuring, God instructed Moses to make a serpent out of bronze and set it on a pole. God said whenever a person is bitten by a fiery serpent, that came because of their sin, should simply look up at the fiery serpent that was hanging on the pole and they would live (Numbers 21:7-9).

Jesus said that the same way the fiery serpent was LIFTED UP ON THE POLE in the wilderness to DRAW JUDGMENT for Israel’s sin was the same way He was going to be LIFTED UP WHEN HE DIES to take the penalty for our sin. (John 12:31-33). (Please note that in the NKJV the word PEOPLES is itiliced; not in the original manuscript but added by translators.

When Jesus died on the cross He did not draw all people to Himself hence people still go to hell if they do not believe in Him, HE DREW ALL JUDGMENT THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO COME TO US. Think of a lightning rod, it draws lightning to itself to protect property around it. What Jesus did is similar to what a lightning rod does; He drew to Himself all the judgment that was supposed to come to us because we broke the Law (Romans 3:23-28). THIS IS LOVE IN ACTION!

(To be continued…)