Ephesians– overview of 3:1-9; The Secret of the Ages, part 24 (Overcoming sin and suffering).

Thursday September 12, 2019

 

ROM 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

 

ROM 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

 

ROM 8:3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

 

Christ did what the Law could not do - dethrone sin by condemning it to death.

 

ROM 8:4 in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

 

ROM 8:5 For those who are according to [present participle - consistently] the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit [qualities of the Spirit], (set their minds on) the things of the Spirit.

 

The things of the flesh are the various sins that result from lusts and desires of fallen mankind that oppose the good that God is. Paul’s point is that those who are still married to their flesh, unregenerated by rejecting the gospel of Christ, are constantly according to these various sins and are minded, or set their minds on them. Some of these things are more obvious than others, and the hidden ones can be the most damaging to life, but all of them are dark and evil.

 

Those who have believed in Christ and so have had their flesh crucified and are now married to Christ are all indwelt by the Holy Spirit and born-again by the power of God as those who walk by the Holy Spirit and set their minds on the things of the Holy Spirit. Regardless of their behavior at any time, they are made as creatures that walk and live by the Spirit of God.

 

ROM 8:6 For the mind set on the flesh [unbeliever] is death, but the mind set on the Spirit [believer] is life and peace,

 

ROM 8:7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so;

 

Perhaps no one text of scripture more completely sets forth the hideously lost state of man, all of whom are born after the flesh.

 

ROM 8:8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

 

ROM 8:9 However, you [the believers in Rome] are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

 

Here the great mark of the Christian is, that the Spirit of God dwells in him.

 

If he is indwelt by the Spirit of God, he is not “in the flesh,” but instead an entirely different kind of being - one that is “in Spirit.” The lack of the definite article (vs. 9) emphasizes the power and guidance of the flesh and the Spirit, emphasizing qualities more than identity. It is the things of the flesh and the Spirit that are under the microscope here.

 

No definite articles are used in vs. 9:

 

“You (believer) are not in the qualities of the flesh but in the qualities of the Spirit.”

 

The Spirit becomes now the element in which the believer lives, like water to the fish, or air to the bird, vital, supplying, protecting.

 

Jesus was conceived by the Spirit, baptized by the Spirit, lead by the Spirit into testing, empowered by the Spirit for His ministry, rejoiced in the Spirit, and He expected that His disciples would complete His work in the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

LUK 10:17 And the seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name."

 

LUK 10:18 And He said to them, "I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.

 

LUK 10:19 "Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall injure you.

 

LUK 10:20 "Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven."

 

LUK 10:21 At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, "I praise Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You hid these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to babes. Yes, Father, for thus it was well-pleasing in Your sight.

 

LUK 10:22 "All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him."